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COMMON-SCHOOL 


LITERATURE 


ENGLISH  AND  AMERICAN 


SEVERAL  HU((DRED  EXTRACTS  FOR  LITEI|ARY  GDLTUI^E 


BY 

J.  WILLIS  WESTLAKE,  A.  M., 

PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE  IN  THE  STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL, 

MILLERSVILLE,  PA.,  AND   AUTHOR   OF   **HOW   TO 

WRITE   LETTERS,"  ETC. 


"Literature  is  the  immortality  of  speech,' 


PHILADELPHIA 
SOWER,    POTTS    &    CO. 


COPYRIGHT 

By  J.  WILLIS   WESTLAKE. 
1876. 


Stereotyped  by  Press  of 

The  Inquired  P.  t<k  P.  Co.,  S^ierman  &  Co., 

Lancaster,  Pa.  Philadelphia. 


c 


PREFACE. 


ONE  of  the  demands  of  the  present  day  is  ^Uhin 
text-books;"  and  the  demand  is  a  reasonable 
one.  Most  subjects  are  too  extensive  to  be  mastered 
in  all  their  details  in  the  time  that  can  be  devoted  to 
them  in  a  preparatory  course  of  study.  What  is  re- 
quired is  a  thorough  knowledge  of  a  few  fundamental 
facts  and  principles  in  each  branch,  as  a  basis  for  future 
attainments.  Hence  the  demand  for  small  books,  in 
which  these  facts  and  principles  are  given  in  clear  and 
definite  statements,  unencumbered  by  unessential  de- 
tails. This  is  a  '*  thin  text-book" — very  thin,  consid- 
ering its  scope.  It  aims  to  give  just  such  and  so  much 
literary  information  as  is  indispensable  to  the  student ; 
to  show  the  growth  of  our  literature  through  its  various 
eras ;  to  present  a  concise  view  of  the  lives  and  char- 
acters of  its  great  representative  authors;  and  to  bring 
forth  from  the  thought-treasures  of  our  language  a 
variety  of  literary  gems  for  the  enrichment  of  the  mind 
of  the  student.  The  plan  of  the  work  is  entirely  new. 
Most  works  on  literature  are  suited  to  impart  knowl- 
edge only ;  this  is  calculated  to  impart  both  knowledge 
and  culture — knowledge  by  its  historic  facts,  culture 
by  its  philosophical  development  and  its  illustrative 
(iii) 


!V!305O16 


iV  PREFACE. 

and  thought-awakening  extracts.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
show  the  importance  of  memorizing  such  extracts.  This 
has  long  been  recognized  by  educators  as  one  of  the 
most  efficient  means  of  culture.  Every  beautiful  senti- 
ment implanted  in  the  fertile  mind  of  youth,  is  a  seed- 
truth  that  will  yield  a  perennial  harvest  of  good 
thoughts  developed  into  worthy  acts.  Hoping  that  this 
little  work  may  be  the  means  of  giving  a  new  interest 
to  the  study  of  pure  literature,  and  sowing  in  many  a 
heart  the  fructifying  seeds  of  truth,  the  author  herewith 
submits  it  to  an  indulgent  public. 

MlLLERSVILLE,  Pa.,  SePT.   ISt.,  1 876. 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS. 

It  is  not  intended  that  all  the  extracts  shall  be  committed  to  memory.  Let 
the  teacher  select  those  that  are  best  suited  to  the  mind  of  the  pupil.  Nor 
is  it  necessary  that  all  the  authors  should  be  studied.  If  a  very  brief  course 
be  desirable,  attention  may  be  given  to  the  following  authors  only ; — 

English  :  Shakspeare,  Milton,  Pope,  Addison,  Goldsmith,  Johnson,  Byron, 
Wordsworth,  Scott,  Tennyson,  Macaulay,  and  Dickens. 

American:  Franklin,  Bryant,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Lowell,  Holmes, 
Irving,  Prescott,  Bancroft,  Hawthorne,  Everett,  and  Emerson. 

If  the  lessons  are  dictated  to  pupils,  they  should  afterwards  be  written  out 
and  handed  in  as  an  exercise.  Such  exercises  are  excellent  language  lessons. 
It  is  also  recommended  that  pupils  be  required  to  express  in  prose  the 
meaning  of  the  poetical  extracts  they  learn.  And  if  the  teacher  will  supple- 
ment the  extracts  by  reading  aloud  some  choice  selection  from  the  same 
author  he  will  add  greatly  to  the  value  of  the  lessons.  An  intelligent 
teacher  may  in  many  ways  make  the  work  tributary  to  literary  culture. 

In  regard  to  the  extracts  it  is  proper  to  say  that  they  were  sometimes  chosen 
on  account  of  some  peculiar  beauty  of  thought  or  language,  and  sometimes  to 
illustrate  the  author's  peculiarities  of  style.  Of  course  no  short  extract  can 
give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  character  of  a  work  as  a  whole. 

The  brief  notices  in  fine  print  (pp.  11,  16,  etc.)  are  not  to  be  recited.  They 
are  intended  to  give  a  general  view  of  the  field  of  literature,  and  to  guide  the 
student  in  his  future  reading.  Writers  on  theology^  medicine,  law^  etc.^  are 
not  mentioned f  unless  they  are  also  distinguished  in  general  literature. 


CONTENTS. 


[an  alphabetical  index  may  be  found  on  page  153.] 

INTRODUCTION  .... 

Part  I The  Literature  of  England 

PERIOD  L— AGE  OF  CHAUCER 

Representative  Author:  Chaucer 
Other  Authors         .... 

PERIOD  II.— AGE  OF  CAXTON 

Authors  :  Caxton,  Skelton,  Wyatt,  Surrey,  More, 
Tyndale,  Coverdale   .... 

PERIOD  III.— ELIZABETHAN  AGE 

Representative  Authors  :  Spenser,  Shakespeare, 

Bacon  .  .  .  .  13 

Other  Authors   . 

PERIOD  IV.— AGE  OF  MILTON 

Representative  Authors:  Milton,  Bunyan 
Other  Authors  .... 

PERIOD  v.— AGE  OF  THE  RESTORATION     . 
Representative  Author:  Dryden 
Other  Authors         .... 

PERIOD  VI.— AGE  OF  QUEEN  ANNE 

Representative  Authors:  Pope,  Addison 
Other  Authors         .... 

PERIOD  VII.— AGE  OF  JOHNSON  . 
Representative  Authors  : — 

Poets:  Goldsmith,  Gray,  Burns,  Cowper 

Prose  Writers  :  Johnson,  Burke  . 
Other  Authors  .... 

(V) 


PAGE. 

7 


10 
10 
II 


14, 

15 
16 

17, 

17 

18 

19 

20 

20 

21 

21 

22, 

23 
24 

25 

25-28 
29-31 
29,31 

Vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

PERIOD  VIII.— AGE  OF  SCOTT        ...        32 
Representative  Authors  : — 

Poets:  Byron,  Shelley,  Moore,  Keats,  Camp- 
bell, Wordsworth  .  .  .         33-37 
Prose  Writers:    Scott,   Southey,  Coleridge, 

Wilson,  De  Quincey,  Lamb  .  .  39-42 

Other  Authors  ...  38, 43 

PERIOD  IX.— VICTORIAN  AGE  .  .  44 

Representative  Authors  : — 

Poets:  Tennyson,  Mrs.  Browning,  Robert  Brown- 
ing,   Jean   Ingelow,  Swinburne,  Morris  45-5 1 
Prose  Writers  :  Macaulay,  Dickens,  Thackeray, 
Lytton,  Eliot,  Hamilton,  Darwin,  Carlyle,  Rus- 
kin              .....  52-60 
Other  Authors              .            .            .  51,60 

Part  II. — The  Literature  of  America. 

PERIOD  L— COLONIAL  AGE  .  .  63 

Representative  Authors:  Mather,  Edwards  64 

Other  Authors  ....  65 

PERIOD  II.— REVOLUTIONARY  AGE                 .  65 
Representative  Authors  : — 

Poets :  Drake,  Halleck          .              .             .  66, 67 
Prci2  Writers  :  Franklin   Jefferson,  Hamilton, 

D wight,  Audubon    ....  68-71 

Other  Authors    .            .            .            .  67, 71 

PERIOD  III.— NATIONAL  AGE  .  .  72 

Representative  Authors  : — 

Poets :  Bryant,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  LoM^ell, 
Holmes,  Poe,  Saxe,  Read,  Boker,  Taylor, 
Alice  Gary,  Aldrich,  Stedman,  Holland,  Harte, 
Miller        .....  72-92 

Prose  Writers :  Irving,  Prescott,  Bancroft,  Mot- 
ley, Cooper,  Hawthorne,  Stowe,  Everett,  Web- 
ster, Agassiz,  Emerson,  Whipple,  White, 
England,  Parker,  Beecher,  Alexander  .     93-103 

Other  Authors        .  .  .  •         93>  104 

Part  III. — A  Casket  of  Thought-Gems. 
MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS  .  .109 

SUPPLEMENT. — Assumed  Names  of  Authors         150-152 


INTRODUCTION. 


Definitions. — Literature  is  thought  expressed  in  writing. 

English  Literature  is  the  literature  of  the  English  language, 
wherever  produced;  but  it  is  sometimes  divided,  for  conveni- 
ence, into  English  literature  proper — the  literature  produced  in 
England  ;  and  American  literature — the  literature  produced  in 
America. 

Forms. —  Literature  exists  in  two  forms, — Poetry  and  Prose. 

Poetry. — Poetry  is  imaginative  composition  in  metrical  form. 
It  is  of  eight  kinds, — Epic,  Dramatic,  Narrative  and  Descriptive, 
Lyric,  Didactic,  Pastoral,  Elegiac,  and  Humorous. 

An  Epic  poem  is  a  long  poetic  recital  of  some  great  event.  Examples  : 
Homer's  Iliad,  Milton's  Paradise  Lost. 

Dramatic  poetry  is  poetry  in  the  form  of  dialogue.  It  is  of  two  kinds, — 
tragedies  and  comedies.  The  finest  dramas  in  the  world  are  those  of  Shak- 
speare.    Examples:  Hamlet  (tragedy),  Merchant  of  Venice  (comedy). 

A  Narrative  poem  is  a  tale  in  verse.  A  Descriptive  poem  is  one  that 
describes  something.  Narration  and  description  are  generally  combined. 
Examples:  Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales,  Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake. 

Lyric  poetry  is  poetry  suitable  for  music.  It  includes  Psalms,  Hymns, 
Songs,  Odes,  and  Sonnets.  Examples  :  Shelley's  Skylark,  Wordsworth's 
Ode  to  Duty,  Moore's  Last  Rose  of  Summer,  etc. 

Didactic  poetry'is  poetry  designed  chiefly  to  instruct.  Examples  :  Pope's 
Essay  on  Man,  Wordsworth's  Excursion,  Bryant's  Thanatopsis. 

Pastoral  poetry  is  poetry  descriptive  of  country  life.  Examples  :  Whit- 
tier's  Snow-Bound,  Tennyson'?  Enoch  Arden,  Taylor's  Lars. 

Elegiac  poetry  is  poetry  commemorative  of  the  dead.  Examples  :  Gray's 
Elegy  written  in  a  Country  Churchyard,  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam. 

Htcmorous  ■poclvy  is  poetry  of  an  amusing  character.  Examples  :  Cowper's 
John  Gilpin,  Saxe's  Proud  Miss  McBride. 

Prose. — Prose  is  composition  without  metre  or  rhyme.     It  is 
of  nine    kinds, — History,  Biography,  Novels,  Travels,   Letters, 
Reviews,  Essays,  Treatises,  and  Discourses. 
(7) 


8  INTR  OD  UCTION. 

History  is  a  record  of  past  events.  Examples  :  Hume's  History  of  £ng> 
land,  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States. 

A  Biography  is  an  account  of  the  life  of  an  individual.  Example  :  Irving's 
Life  of  Washington.     To  this  class  belong  autobiographies  and  diaries. 

A  Novell^  a  fictitious  story.  Among  the  best  examples  are  the  novels  of 
Scott,  Thackeray,  and  Dickens. 

A  Book  of  Travels  \%  a  record  of  the  experiences  and  observations  of  a  trav- 
eller.    Examples :  Bayard  Taylor's  Views  Afoot,  etc. 

A  Letter  is  a  composition  addressed  to  a  particular  person.  Letters  are 
generally  included  in  biographj'.     Example:  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Byron. 

A  Review  is  a  long  article  founded  on  some  literary  work.  Among  the  best 
reviews  are  those  of  Macaulay,  Lowell,  and  Whipple. 

An  Essay  is  a  brief  and  somewhat  informal  composition  on  any  subject. 
Among  the  best  essays  are  those  of  Lord  Bacon,  Addison,  and  Lamb  (Elia). 

A  Treatise  is  a  composition  setting  forth  in  a  systematic  manner  the  prin- 
ciples of  some  science  or  art.  Examples  :  Haven's  Mental  Science,  Brooks's 
Geometry. 

A  Discourse  is  a  composition  intended  to  be  read  aloud  or  spoken  by  the 
writer.  Discourses  are  of  five  kinds, — Orations,  Addresses,  Sermons,  Lec- 
tures, and  Speeches. 

Parts. — Though  English  literature  embraces  all  works  written 
in  the  English  language,  whether  produced  in  England  or 
America;  yet  it  is  practically  most  convenient  to  consider  the 
literature  of  each  country  separately,  and  this  plan  has  been 
adopted  in  the  present  work. 

Each  biographical  sketch  will  be  followed  by  one  or  more 
extracts  to  be  memorized ;  and  in  order  to  afford  still  further 
opportunity  of  thought-culture,  and  to  illustrate  more  fully  the 
variety  and  richness  of  our  literature,  a  collection  of  literary  gems 
will  be  added  as  a  separate  division. 

The  body  of  the  work  will  consist,  therefore,  of  three  parts : — 
Part  I.  The  Literature  of  England. 
Part  II.  The  Literature  of  America. 
Part  III.  A  Casket  of  Thought-Gems. 


COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 


PART   I. 
THE  LITERATURE  OF  ENGLAND. 


INTRODUCTION. 

ORIGIN. — English  literature  may  be  said  to  have  begun  with 
Chaucer,  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  There 
are  works  that  were  written  much  earlier,  but  they  are  in  a  lan- 
guage so  different  from  modern  English  that  they  cannot  be  read 
without  a  glossary.  The  works  produced  in  England  from  about 
450  to  1050  A.  D.,  were  in  Anglo-Saxon,  now  a  dead  language. 
Those  produced  between  1050  and  1350  were  in  a  dialect  which 
was  neither  Anglo-Saxon  nor  English,  but  a  mixture  of  the  two, 
approximating  more  and  more,  toward  the  close  of  the  period,  to 
the  language  of  Shakspeare.  The  dialect  used  during  the  first 
part  of  this  interval,  say  from  1050  to  1200,  is  known  as  Semi- 
Saxon  ;  that  used  during  the  last  part  of  it  is  known  as  Old 
English. 

Periods. — We  find  that  literature  at  different  times  has  dif- 
ferent characteristics,  varying  with  the  intellectual,  social,  and 
political  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  nation.  It  is  thus  possible 
to  divide  the  literature  of  a  people  into  certain  epochs  or  periods " 
more  or  less  marked.  Of  course  there  is  and  can  be  no  sharp 
dividing  line  between  these  periods :  literature  is  not  a  succession 
of  pools,  but  a  continuous  stream,  sometimes  widening,  sometimes 
narrowing,  but  ever  flowing  on.     Since  these  divisions  are  to  some 

I*  (9) 


10  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

extent  arbitrary,  we  have  in  this  work  fixed  them  at  such  dates  \ 
are  easily  remembered. 

We  find  in  English  Literature  nine  of  these  periods  : — 

Period  I.  The  Age  of  Chaucer,  1 350-1400. 

Period  II.  The  Age  of  Caxton,  1400-1550. 

Period  III.  The  Elizabethan  Age,  1 550-1625. 

Period  IV.  The  Age  of  Milton,  1 625-1 660. 

Period  V.  The  Age  of  the  Restoration,  1 660-1 700. 

Period  VI.  The  Age  of  Queen  Anne,  1700-1750. 

Period  VII.  The  Age  of  Johnson,  1750-1800.-^ 

Period  VIII.  The  Age  of  Scott,  1 800-1 830. 

Period  IX.  The  Victorian  Age,  1830-1875. 


PERIOD  L— AGE  OF  CHAUCER. 

1350-1400. 

(Edward  III.,  Richard  II.,  Henry  IV.) 

THIS  age  is  memorable  in  history  on  account  of  the  military 
glories  of  Edw.  III.  and  his  heroic  son  the  Black  Prince  ; 
by  which  the  Saxon  and  Norman  elements  of  the  people  were 
united,  a  national  sentiment  established,  and  the  supremacy  of 
England  secured.  It  was  also  a  period  of  religious  agitation,  of 
awakening  thought,  and  of  vigorous  protest  against  the  abuses  and 
corruption  that  had  invaded  the  church.  At  this  time  were  sown, 
by  Wyckliffe  and  others,  the  seeds  that  produced,  more  than  a  cen- 
tury later,  the  English  Reformation  under  Kenry  VIII. 

The   chief  literary  representative  of  this  age  is  our  first  great 
poet,  Geoffrey  Chaucer. 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER. 

Geoffrey  Chaucer  (1328-1400),  known  as  "the  father  of  English 
poetry,"  was  not  only  the  earliest  of  our  great  poets,  but  was  also 
the  only  author  of  the  first  class  that  England  produced  till  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century.  His  principal  work  is  the  Can- 
terbury  Tales.     It  consists  of  twenty-four  stories  supposed  to  have 


AGE  OF  C AX  TON,  11 

been  told  by  a  company  of  pilgrims  on  iheir  way  to  Canterbury, 
with  a  Prologue  and  connectmg  narrations. 
EXTRACTS. 
1. 
Truth  is  the  highest  thing  a  man  may  keep. 

II. 
Of  study  took  he  moste*  care  and  heed  ; 
Not  a  word  spake  he  more  than  was  nede, 
And  that  was  said  in  forme  and  reverence, 
And  short  and  quicke,  and  ful  of  high  sentence ; 
Souning  in  moral  vertue  was  his  speche, 
•    And  gladly  wolde  he  lerne  and  gladly  teche. 

Fi'ologue:   The  Clerk  {Student). 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

John  Wyckliffk  (1324-138^),  a  learned  preacher,  sometimes  called  "The 
Morning  Star  of  the  Reformation,"  author  of  the  first  English  Translation  of 
the  whole  Bible. 

Wii-LiAM  Langland  (about  1332-1400),  author  of  a  powerful  allegorical 
poem  entitled  Piers  Plowman. 

John  Gower  (1320  ?-i402),  called  by  Chaucer  "  Moral  Gower,"  author  of 
a  long,  tedious  poem  entitled  Confessio  Amantis  (A  Lover's  Confession). 

Sir  John  Manueville  (1300-1372),  author  of  a  book  of  Travels. 


PERIOD  II.^AGE  OF  CAXTON. 
1400-1550. 

(Henry  v.,  Henry  VI.,  Edwar4  IV.,  Edward  V.,  Richard  III.,  Henry  VII., 
^  Henry  VIII.,  Edward  VI.,  Mary.) 

THIS  was  an  age  of  turmoil,  and  it  gave  rise  to  no  great  author. 
It  is  celel)rated  in  history  on  account  of  four  great  events  : 

1.  The  invention  of  printing,  and  its  introduction  into  England 
by  Caxton; 

2.  The  Discovery  of  America ; 

3.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  ; 

4.  The  Protestant  Reformation  in  England  under  Henry  VIII. 

*In  reading  Chaucer  it  is  often  necessary  to  sound  e  final,  to  preserve  the 
metre. 


12  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

William  Caxton  (141 2-1492),  the  first  English  printer.  The 
first  book  printed  in  England  was  The  Game  and  Play  of  Chess. 

John  Skelton  (1460-1529),  a  satirical  poet,  first  "Poet- 
Laureate,"  tutor  to  the  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  Henry  VIII. , 
author  of  Colin  Clout,  Book  of  the  Sparrow,  etc. 

Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  (i  503-1 542),  a  statesman  and  lyric  poet. 
His  best  poems  are  his  love  songs. 

Henry  Howard.  Earl  of  Surrey  (1516-1547),  a  writer  of 
sonnets  and  songs,  and  first  writer  of  blank  verse.  He  was  exe- 
cuted by  the  King  upon  an  absurd  charge  of  treason. 

Sir  Thomas  More  (1480-1535),  Chancellor  to  Henry  VIII., 
executed  because  he  refused  to  assist  the  King  in  getting  a  divorce 
from  Catharine.     Author  of  Utopia,  a  prose  romance. 

Tyndale  (1480-1536)  and  Coverdale  (1487-1568),  transla- 
tors of  the  Bible.     Henry  VIII.   caused  Tyndale  to  be  burned. 


PERIOD  III._-ELIZABETHAN  AGE. 
1550-1625. 

(Refgns  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.) 

THIS  is  the  most  glorious  era  of  English  literature.  No  other 
age  presents  such  a  splendid  array  of  gre^t  names,  such 
originality,  such  creative  energy ;  and  no  other  has  added  so  many 
grand  ideas  to  the  mental  treasures  of  the  race.  Nature  at  this 
time  seems  to  have  been  prodigal  of  great  men.  Within  a  period 
of  eleven  years  (1553  to  1564)  she  produced  three  writers — Spen- 
ser, Shakspeare,  and  Bacon — either  of  whom  would  have  made 
any  age  illustrious ;  besides  many  others,  who,  had  they  lived  in 
any  other  period,  would  have  stood  in  the  first  rank  of  authors. 

Among  the  chief  literary  events  of  the  age  were  the  rise  and 
marvellous  development  of  the  English  drama,  and  the  revision  of 
the  English  Bible  (Protestant  version)  under  Kingi.  James,  in  1611. 

Its  chief  historical  events    were  the  restoration  of    Protestant 


ELIZABE  THAN  A  GE.  13: 

supremacy,   the  execution  of   Mary    Queen    of   Scots,  and   the 
destruction  of  the  Spanish  Armada. 

We  select  as  its  literary  representatives  the  three  already  men- 
tioned,— Spenser,  Shakspeare,  and  Bacon. 


SPENSER.  1553-1599. 

Edmund  Spenser,  whose  name  stands  second  on  the  roll  of  great' 
English  poets,  was  born  in  London  in  1553;  received  a  liberal 
education ;  was  introduced  at  Court  by  Sir  Philip  Sidney ;  received 
from  the  Queen  a  grant  of  land  in  Ireland,  where  he  spent  several 
years  of  his  life ;  finally,  in  1599,  was  driven  from  his  castle  by  a 
mob,  and  died  soon  after  in  London,  at  the  age  of  forty-six.  He 
was  a  man  of  pure  character,  elegant  culture,  and  rare  genius — 
one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

His  principal  work  is  The  Faerie  Queene,  a  long  allegory  in  six 
books,  setting  forth  the  excellence  of  holiness,  temperance,  chastity, 
iustice,  courtesy,  and  friendship,  under  the  guise  of  knights.  It  is- 
distinguished  for  the  fertility  of  its  invention,  the  beauty  of  its  de- 
scriptions, and  the  wealth  of  its  imagery.  Among  the  best  of  his 
other  poems  are  his  Epithalamiony  or  marriage  song,  Hymns  of 
Love,  Beauty,   Heavenly  Love,  and  Heavenly  Beauty,  and    hisr 

exquisite  Sonnets, 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Oh,  how  can  beauty  master  the  most  strong. 
And  simple  truth  subdue  avengmg  wrong  ! 

Faerie  Queene,  Bk.  /.,  Canto  LIT. 
II. 
At  last  the  golden  oriental  gate 
Of  greatest  heaven  'gan  to  open  fair. 
And  Phoebus,  fresh  as  bridegroom  to  his  mate. 
Came  dancing  forth,  shaking  his  dewy  hair. 
And  hurled  his  glistening  beams  through  gloomy  air. 

F.  Q.,  Bk.  /.,  Canto  K 
III. 

MINISTERING  ANGELS. 

And  is  there  care  in  heaven.  ?     And  is  there  love 
In  heavenly  spirits  to  these  creatures  base, 


14  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATI  EE. 

That  may  compassion  of  their  evils  move? 
There  is ;  else  much  more  wretched  were  the  case 
Of  men  than  beasts  :  but  oh,  the  exceeding  grace 
Of  highest  God,  that  loves  his  creatures  so, 
And  all  his  works  with  mercy  doth  embrace, 
That  blessed  angels  he  sends  to  and  fro, 
To  serve  to  wicked  man,  to  serve  his  wicked  foe  <* 

How  oft  do  they  their  silver  lx)wers  leave 
To  come  to  succor  us  that  succor  want ! 
How  oft  do  they  with  golden  pinions  cleave 
The  flitting  skies,  like  flying  pursuivant, 
Against  foul  fiends  to  aid  us  militant ! 
They  for  us  fight,  they  watch  and  duly  ward, 
And  their  bright  squadrons  round  about  us  plant, — 
And  all  for  love  and  nothing  for  reward : 
Oh,  why  should  Heavenly  God  to  men  have  such  regard? 
F.  Q.,  Bk.  IL,  Canto  VIIL 


SHAKSPEARE.   1564-1616. 

William  Shakspeare,  the  greatest  dramatist,  and  probably  the 
greatest  genius,  of  all  time,  was  born  at  Stratford-upon-Avon,  in 
1564.  His  boyhood  was  passed  in  his  native  village,  where, 
when  about  eighteen,  he  married  Ann  Hathaway,  a  woman 
eight  years  older  than  himself.  Soon  after  he  went  to  London, 
where  he  became  successively  an  actor,  a  dramatist,  and  a  theatri- 
cal manager.  Having  obtained  both  fame  and  fortune,  he  retired 
in  161 1  to  Stratford,  whcre*he  died  in  1616,  on  his  fifty-second 
birthday. 

His  greatest  works  are  his  dramas,  thirty-seven  in  "number. 
These  may  be  classified,  as  to  their  nature,  into  Tragedies  and 
Comedies ;  as  to  their  origin,  into  Historical  and  Fictitious.  The 
historical  plays  may  be  still  further  divided  into  Authentic  and 
Legendary.  Among  the  best  of  his  tragedies  are  Hamlet^  Mac- 
beth, Othello,  and  King  Lear ;  among  the  best  comedies,  The 
Merchant  of  Venice,  As  you  Like  it,  and  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream ;  among  the  best  historical  plays,  Julius  Ccesar,  King 
Henry  IV.,  King  Henry  V.,  and  King  Richard  LI  I. 


E  LIZ  ABE  THAN  A  GE.  15 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Neither  a  borrower  nor  a  lender  be ; 

For  loan  oft  loses  both  itself  and  friend, 

And  borrowing  dulls  the  edge  of  husbandry.       Hamlets 

II. 
This  above  all — to  thine  own  self  be  true, 
I  And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man.  Hamlet, 

III. 
Sweet  are  the  uses  of  adversity, 
Which,  like  the  toad,  ugly  and  venomous, 
"Wears  yet  a  precious  jewel  in  his  head ; 
And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt. 
Find  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everything. 

As  you  Like  it. 

IV. 
The  poet's  eye,  in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling, 
Doth  glance  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  earth  to  heaven ; 
And,  as  imagination  bodies  forth 
The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 
Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name. 

Alidsummer  Night'' s  Dream, 

V. 

These  our  actors. 
As  I  foretold  you,  were  all  spirits,  an,d 
Are  melted  into  air,  into  thin  air; 
And,  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  this  vision. 
The  cloud-capped  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces. 
The  solemn  temples,  the  great  globe  itself. 
Yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve, 
And  like  this  insubstantial  pageant  faded. 
Leave  not  a  rack  behind.  (^We  are  such  stuff 
As  dreams  are  made  of,  and  our  little  life 
Is  rounded  with  a  sleep.  -|  The  Tempest. 

BACON.   1561-1626. 
Sir  Francis  Bacon,  known  as  Lord  Bacon,  was  born  in  1 56 1,  and 
died  in  1626.     After  his  graduation  he  spent  some  time  in  travel, 
then  studied  law,  and  rapidly  rose  from  one  honor  to  another,  until 


16  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

he  became  Viscount  St.  Albans  and  Lord  High  Chancellor  of 
England.     Finally,  being  convicted  of  accepting  bribes,  he  was  re- 
moved from  office,  banished  from  court,  and  heavily  fined.     Bacon 
was  in  many  respects  one  of  the  greatest  men  that  ever  lived,  but 
he  is  especially  honored  as  "  the  father  of  inductive  philosophy." 
His  most  profound  work  is  Novum  Organum  (The  New  Organ), 
but  his  most  popular  one  is  his  Essays. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Knowledge  is  power. 

II. 
No  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  on  the  vantage-ground 
of  truth. 

III. 
A  little  philosophy  inclineth  a  man's  mind  to  atheism,  but  depth 
in  philosophy  bringeth  men's  minds  about  to  religion. 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

NON-DRAMATIC  POETS. 

Thomas  Sackville  (1536-1608),  Earl  of  Dorset,  author  of  Mirror  for  Mag- 
istrates. 

Robert  Southwell  (1560-1595),  a  devout  poet,  memorable  alike  for  his 
sufferings  and  his  genius.  Being  a  Jesuit,  he  died  a  martyr  to  his  religion. 
Author  of  St.  Peter's  Complaint,  Magdalene's  Tears,  Content  and  Rich,  etc. 

Samuel  Daniel  (1562-1619),  known  as  **  well-languaged  Daniel,"  author 
of  Musophilus,  and  History  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses. 

Michael  Drayton  (1563-1631),  author  of  Polyolbion  and  many  other 
poems. 

George  Herbert  (1593-1632),  known  as  "Holy  George  Herbert,"  author 
of  The  Temple,  and  1  he  Country  Parson.  One  oi  the  best  of  our  sacred 
poets. 

dramatic  poets. 

Christopher  Marlowe  (1564-1593),  the  greatest  dramatist  before  Shaks- 
peare,  author  of  Tamburlane  and  Faustus. 

Ben  Jonson  (1574-1637),  second  to  Shakspeare  only,  author  of  Every  Man 
in  his  Humor,  Volpone,  or  the  Fox,  Sejanus,  etc. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  very  popular  in  their  day,  wrote  Two  Noble 
Kinsmen,  Rule  a  Wife  and  Have  a  Wife,  Faithful  Shepherdess,  and  many 
other  works.     Some  were  written  by  them  jointly,  some  by  Fletcher  alone. 

Philip  Massinger  (1584-1640),  author  of  Duke  of  Milan,  Fatal  Dowry,. 
>Jew  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts,  etc. 


AGE  OF  MILTON.  17 

Webster,  Ford,  Chapman,  Shirley,  and  several  others,  were  also  dis- 
tinguished dramatists  of  the  second  class. 

PROSE  WRITERS. 

Sir  Philip  Sidney  (1554-1586),  one  of  the  most  chivalrous  gentlemen  and 
accomplished  writers  of  this  age,  author  of  Arcadia,  a  prose  romance ;  Defence 
of  Poesy  ;  and  some  beautiful  Sonnets. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1552-1618),  courtier,  soldier,  adventurer,  and  writer, 
author  of  History  of  the  World  (written  in  prison),  and  several  poems  of 
much  merit.     He  was  executed  by  order  of  James  I.  , 

Roger  Ascham  (1515-1568),  tutor  of  Princess  (afterward  Queen)  Elizabeth, 
and  author  of  Toxophilus  (archery),  and  The  Schoolmaster. 

Richard  Hooker  (1553-1600),  a  learned  and  eloquent  divine,  author  of 
Ecclesiastical  Polity. 


PERIOD  IV._AGE  OF  MILTON. 
1625 — 1660. 

(Reign  of  Charles  I.  and  Protectorate  of  Cromwell.) 

THIS  was  an  age  of  fierce  political  and  religious  controversy. 
It  witnessed  the  trial  and  execution  of  Charles  I.,  the  wars  of 
the  Cavaliers  and  Roundheads,  and  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  Com- 
monwealth and  Protectorate.  It  was  not  favorable  to  authorship, 
hence  but  few  works  were  produced,  and  these  were  mostly 
of  a  religious  and  controversial  character.  Of  the  authors  who 
lived  during  this  period,  there  were,  however,  a  few  of  great  ex- 
cellence. Of  these  the  most  celebrated  are  John  Milton  and  John 
Bunyan. 


MILTON.   1608-1674. 

John  Milton,  the  greatest  of  English  poets  since  Shakspeare, 
was  born  in  1608,  and  died  in  1674.  Having  spent  seven  years 
at  the  university  and  five  years  in  studious  retirement  at  home,  he 
set  out,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  on  a  continental  tour ;  but  returned  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war,  and  soon  after  entered  the  ser- 
vice of  Cromwell  as  Latin  secretary,  and  contributed  powerfully 
by  his  pen  to  the  success  of  the  Puritan  cause.     On  theRestora- 


IS  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

tion,  he  was  forced  into  retirement,  and  devoted  himself,  in  pov- 
erty, blindness,  and  political  disgrace,  to  the  composition  of  his 
great  epic. 

Milton's  principal  poetical  works  are — Paradise  Lost,  Paradise 
Regained^  Samson  Agonistes  (a  drama),  Cotnus  (a  masque),  V Al- 
legro^ II  Penseroso,  Hymn  to  the  Nativity. 

The  best  of  his  prose  works  is  Areopagitica^  a  Plea  for  Un- 
licensed Printing. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Morn, 
'Waked  by  the  circling  hours,  with  rosy  hands 
Unbarred  the  gates  of  light.  Par.  Z.,  Bk.  VI. 


Grace  was  in  all  her  steps,  heaven  in  her  eye. 

In  every  gesture  dignity  and  love.      P.  L.,Bk.  VIIL 


Accuse'  not  Nature,  she  hath  done  her  part, 

Do  thou  but  thine.  P.  Z.,  Bk.  VIIL 

IV. 

Virtue  could  see  to  do  what  virtue  would, 

By  her  own  radiant  light,  though  sun  and  moon 

Were  in  the  flat  sea  sunk.  Comus. 

V. 
A  thousand  fantasies 
Begin  to  throng  into  my  memory, 
Of  calling  shapes,  and  beckoning  shadows  dire, 
And  airy  tongues  that  syllable  men's  names 
On  sands  and  shores  and  desert  wildernesses. 

Comus. 


BUNYAN.  1628-1688. 
John  Bunyan,  at  first  a  poor,  profane  tinker,  wrote,  after  his 
V  onversion,  and  while  confined  in  Bedford  jail,  the  greatest  alle- 
gory in  the  world,  Pilgri7?i^s  Progress.  It  has  been  translated 
into  nearly  every  language,  and  has  probably  exerted  a  wider 
influence  than  any  other  religious  book  except  the  Bible. 


AGE  OF  MILTON.  19 

EXTRACT. 

lie  that  forgets  his  friend  is  ungratelul  lo  him;  but  he  that  for- 
gets his  Saviour  is  unmerciful  to  himseh'. 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

POBTS. 

Edmund  Waller  (1605-1687),  first  a  Republican,  afterwards  a  Royalist, 
author  of  Panegyric  to  My  Lord  Protector,  and  many  short  poems.  Very 
popular  in  his  day. 

Abraham  Cowley  (i6i8-i667\  once  regarded  as  a  great  poet,  author  of 
The  Mistress  (or  Love  Verses),  Pindaric  Odes,  Davideis,  etc.;  also'of  some  ex- 
cellent Essays. 

George  Wither  (1588-1667),  a  soldier  and  poet  on  the  side  of  Cromwell, 
author  of  Shepherd's  Hunting,  Hymns  and  Songs  of  the  Church,  Abuses 
Stript  and  Whipt  (a  satire),  etc. 

Robert  Herrick  (1591-J674),  a  fine  lyric  poet,  but  sometimes  coarse  ; 
author  of  Cherry  Ripe,  Gather  Rosebuds  while  ye  may,  and  other  songs. 

Sir  John  Suckling  (1608-1642),  a  Cavalier  poet,  author  of  many  charm- 
ing short  poems  and  songs. 

Richard  Crashavv  (  ?  -1650),  a  religious  poet  of  rich  and  fervid  imagina- 
tion, author  of  Steps  to  the  Temple,  Music's  Duel,  Delights  of  the  Muses,  etc 
The  celebrated  line,  "The  conscious  water  saw  its  God  and  blushed,"  is  a 
translation  of  one  of  his  Latin  verses. 

PROSE  writers. 

Edward  Hyde,  Earl  of  Clarendon  (1608-1673),  an  eminent  Royalist 
sta'tesman,  author  of  an  excellent  History  of  the  Rebellion, 

Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679),  an  eminent  philosopher,  author  of  The 
Leviathan. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne  (1605-1682),  a  quaint  and  powerful  writer,  author  of 
Religio  Medici  (Religion  of  a  Physician),  etc. 

IzAAK  Walton  (i 593-1 683),  author  of  The  Complete  Angler,  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  books  of  the  age;  and  Walton's  Lives  (lives  of  Wotton,  Her- 
bert, Hooker,  etc.). 

Thomas  Fuller  (1608-1661),  a  learned  divine,  author  of  Church  History, 
Worthies  of  England,  the  Holy  and  the  Profane  State,  etc. 

Jeremy  Taylor,  D.  D.  (1613-1667),  a  great  pulpit  orator,  author  of  Holy 
Living,  Holy  Dying,  Liberty  of  Prophesying,  etc. 

Dr.  Isaac  Barrow  (1630-1677),  a  great  mathematician  (instructor  of  Sir 
Isaac  Newton)  and  powerful  preacher;  author  of  Mathematical  Works, 
Sermons,  etc. 

Dr.  Richard  Baxter  (1615-1691),  a  great  preacher  and  writer,  author  of 
Call  to  the  Unconverted,  Saints'  Everlasting  Rest,  Hymns,  etc. 


20  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE. 

PERIOD  v.— AGE  OF  THE  RESTOIL\TION, 
1660 — 1700. 

(Reigns  of  Charles  II.,  James  II.,  William  and  Mary.) 

THIS  age  presents  a  marked  contrast  to  the  preceding  one.  The 
gravity  and  austerity  of  the  Puritans  gave  way  before  the  fiood 
of  French  tastes,  French  fashions,  and  French  vices,  that  came  in 
with  Charles  and  his  gay  Cavaliers.  Corruption  and  licentious- 
ness reigned  in  court  and  camp,  and  literature  was  debased  and 
made  to  pander  to  the  false  tastes  and  lusts  of  the  ruling  class. 

Its  greatest  events  were  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the 
great  Revolution  of  1688,  which  resulted  in  the  l^anishment  of 
James  II.,  and  the  enthronement  of  William  and  Mary. 

Its  greatest  author  was  John  Dry  den. 


DRYDEN.  1631-1700. 

John  Dryden,  the  greatest  poet  of  the  Restoration,  was  born  in 
163 1,  and  died  in  1700.  His  parents  were  Puritans,  and  he  was 
at  first  a  great  admirer  of  Cromwell,  on  whom  he  wrote  a  pane- 
gyric; but  on  the  accession  of  the  Stuarts  he  became  an  ardent 
Royalist,  and  addressed  a  flattering  poem  to  the  King.  Dryden's 
chief  defect  was  a  lack  of  high  principle.  He  wrote  for  present 
gain  and  popularity,  not  because  he  had  any  great  message  to 
deliver.  Hence,  though  he  was  endowed  with  genius  of  the  high- 
est order,  his  life  was  comparatively  a  failure. 

He  MTote  dramas,  poems,  and  essays.  The  best  of  his  dramas 
is  The  Itidian  Empe?'or.  His  principal  poems  are  Alexander's 
Feast:  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  a  political  satire;  The  Hind  and 
Panther,  di'^otm.  in  defence  of  the  Catholic  Church;  and  a  Tratis- 
lation  of  VirgiVs  ^neid. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Men  are  but  children  of  a  larger  growth. 

II. 
But  Shakspeare's  magic  could  not  copied  be; 
Within  that  circle  none  durst  walk  but  he. 


AGE  OF  QUEEN  ANNE,  21 

III. 
Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 
And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide. 

IV. 

Three  poets"^  in  three  distant  ages  born, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  England  did  adorn; 
The  first  in  loftiness  of  thought  surpassed. 
The  next  in  majesty,  in  both  the  last. 
The  force  of  nature  could  no  further  go; 
To  make  a  third  she  joined  the  former  two. 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

POETS. 

Samuel  Butler  (1612-1680),  author   of  Hudibras,  one  of  the  most  famous 
satires  in  the  language,  ridiculing  the  Puritans  and  Independents. 
prose  writers. 

John  Locke  (1632-1704),  a  great  philosopher,  author  of  Essay  Concerning 
the  Human  Understanding,  etc. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  (1642-1727),  the  great  mathematician,  author  of  The 
Principia. 

Hon.  Robert  Boyle  (1627-1691),  a  devout  philosopher,  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  Royal  Society. 

Sir  Wm.  Temple  (1628-1699),  a  diplomatist,  and  a  graceful  esssyist. 

John  Evelyn,  F.  R.  S.  (1620-1706),  author  of  Sylva,  a  Discourse  on  For- 
est Trees  ;  and  Terra,  a  work  on  Agriculture. 

Samuel  Pepys  (1632-1703)  left  a  marvellously  entertaining  and  important 
Diary,  which  has  taken  a  permanent  place  in  literature. 


American  Contemporaries. 
John  Eliot  (the  "great  apostle  to  the  Indians"),  and  Cotton  Mather. 


PERIOD  VI.— AGE  OF  QUEEN  ANNE. 

1700 — 1750. 

(Queen  Anne,  George  I.,  George  II.) 

THE  moral  and  religious  tone  of  this  age  vvras  not  much  higher 
than  that  of  the  last.  It  was  characterized  by  a  sort  of  super- 
ficial refinement — a  refinement,  not  of  morals  and  character,  but 
of  manners  and  language.     This  was  especially  apparent  in  its 

♦Homer,  Virgil,  Milton. 


22  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

poetry ;  hence  the  poets  of  the  age  are  sometimes  spoken  of  as 
"the  correct  poets." 

Its  great  events  were  the  campaigns  of  the  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough and  the  Peace  of  Utrecht. 

We  select  as  its  literary  representatives  Pope  and  Addison. 


POPE.  1 688-1 744. 

Alexander  Pope,  the  worthy  successor  of  Dryden  to  the  throne 
of  poesy,  was  born  in  1688,  and  died  in  1744.  He  was  sickly, 
puny,  and  deformed  in  body,  and  therefore  did  not  attend  col- 
lege ;  but  he  had  a  mind  of  wonderful  clearness  and  vigor,  was  a 
great  reader  and  a  diligent  student,  and  thus  made  himself  master 
of  several  languages  and  acquired  a  vast  store  of  information. 
He  was  a  great  admirer  and  to  some  extent  an  imitator  of  Dryden ; 
but  while  he  surpassed  the  latter  in  smoothness  of  versification  and 
brilliancy  of  wit,  he  fell  below  him  in  grasp  and  vigor  of  thought. 

His  principal  works  are  the  Essay  on  Criiicisfn,  Essay  07i  Man, 
Rape  of  the  Lock  (the  finest  mock-heroic  poem  in  the  language), 
77ie  Dunciad  (a  satire),  and  a  Translation  of  Homer. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Charms  strike  the  sight,  but  merit  wins  the  soul. 

Essay  on  Man. 
II. 
To  err  is  human ;  to  forgive,  divine. 

Essay  on  Criticism. 
III. 
Know,  then,  thyself;  presume  not  God  to  scan  ; 
The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man. 

Essay  07i  Man. 

IV. 

All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  nature  is,  and  God  the  soul 

Essay  on  Man, 

V. 

Slave  to  no  sect,  who  takes  no  private  road. 
But  looks  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God. 

Essay  on  Man. 


AGE  OF  QUEEN  ANNE.  23 

VI. 

What  nothing  earthly  gives  or  can  destroy, 

The  soul's  calm  sunshine  and  the  heartfelt  joy, 

Is  virtue's  prize.  Essay  on  Man„ 

VII. 
Vice  is  a  monster  of  so  frightful  mien. 
As,  to  be  hated,  needs  but  to  be  seen  ; 
But  seen  too  oft,  familiar  with  her  face, 
We  first  endure,  then  pity,  then  embrace. 

Essay  on  Man. 


ADDISON.  1672-1719. 

The  history  of  literature  presents  few  nobler  and  more  symmet- 
rical characters  than  that  of  Joseph  Addison.  He  was  born  in  1672, 
received  a  thorough  education  at  Oxford,  and  then  travelled 
on  the  Continent.  A  poem  on  the  battle  of  Blenheim  procured  for 
him  an  appointment  under  the  Government,  and  he  rose  from  one 
position  to  another  until  he  became  vSecretary  of  State,  from  which 
position  he  retired  with  a  pension  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds  a 
year,  and  died  soon  after,  in  17 19,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven — full 
of  honors,  though  in  the  meridian  of  life. 

Addison  is  distinguished  both  in  poetry  and  prose.  His  princi- 
pal poetical  works  are  his  Tragedy  of  Cato^  and  several  beautiful 
hymns.     Among  the  latter  is  the  well-known  hymn  beginning, — 

"  When  all  thy  mercies,  O  my  God," 
and  his  exquisite  version  of  the  xixth  Psalm,  beginning, — 

"  The  spacious  firmament  on  high."*  ' 

His  principal  prose  works  are  his  delightful  papers  contributed 
to  the  7<2!//^r,  the  Spectator^  zxvA  the  Gtiardian.  These"  papers 
have  been  commended  as  models  of  correct  taste,  and  have  exer- 
cised a  powerful  and  salutary  influence  on  the  manners,  morals, 
and  literature  of  the  English  people.  Addison's  contributions 
are  signed  by  one  of  the  letters  of  the  word  CLIO. 

♦This  poem  is  by  some  attributed  to  Andrew  Marvel,  a  friend  of  Milton's, 
but  on  what  evidence  I  do  net  know.  It  was  published  in  the  Spectator 
(No.  465),  in  one  of  Addison's  articles,  as  if  original,  and  to  him  it  is  almost 
universally  credited. 


24  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

A  cheerful  temper,  joined  with  innocence,   will  make  beauty 
attractive,  knowledge  delightful,  and  wit  good-natured.     It  will 
lighten  sickness,  poverty,  and  affliction,  convert  ignorance  into  an 
amiable  simplicity,  and  render  deformity  itself  agreeable. 
II. 
'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command  success, 
But  we  '11  do  more,  Sempronius  ;  we  '11  deserve  it. 

Cato. 
III. 
When  vice  prevails  and  impious  men  bear  sway, 
The  post  of  honor  is  the  private  station.  Cato, 

IV. 
The  soul,  secured  in  her  existence,  smiles 
At  the  drawn  dagger,  and  defies  its  point. 
The  stars  shall  fade  away,  the  sun  himself 
Grow  dim  with  age,  and  nature  sink  in  years, 
But  thou  shalt  flourish  in  immortal  youth, 
Unhurt  amidst  the  war  of  elements. 
The  wrecks  of  matter,  and  the  crush  of  worlds.         Cato, 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

POETS. 

Dk.  Edward  Young  (1684-1765),  author  of  Night  Thoughts. 

James  Thomson  (1700-1748),  author  of  The  Seasons,  and  The  Castle  of 
Indolence. 

Wm.  Collins  (1720-1756),  a  fine  lyric  poet,  author  of  Ode  to  the  Passions, 
How  Sleep  the  Brave,  etc.     He  died  insane. 

Matthew  Prior    (1664-1721),  author  of  Solomon,  Alma,  and  many  fine 
lyrics. 

JoHvN  Gay  (1688-1732),  author  of  The  Beggar's  Opera,  and  Fables. 
prose  writers. 
'   Sir  Richard  Steele  (1671-1729),  one  of  the  writers  forTheTatler  and  The 
Spectator.     Nearly  equal  to  Addison  as  an  essayist. 

Jonathan  Swift,  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's  (1667-1745),  a  man  of  masculine 
and  versatile  genius,  author  of  Gulliver's  Travels,  The  Tale  of  a  Tub,  etc. 

Daniel  Defoe  (1661-1731),  author  of  Robinson  Crusoe. 

Dr.  Philip  Doddridge  (1702-1751),  a  devout  preacher,  author  of  Rise  and 
Progress  of  Religion  in  the  Soul,  Family  Expositor,  Hymns,  etc. 

American:  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  great  Metaphybician. 


AGE  OF  yOHNSON.  25 

PERIOD  VIL— AGE  OF  JOHNSON. 

1 750-1 800. 

(Part  of  the  Reigns  of  Geo.  II.  and  Geo.  III.) 

THE  Age  of  Johnson  occupies  the  last  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Like  the  preceding,  it  was  critical  rather  than  crea- 
tive,  and  cared  less  about  what  was  said  than  about  the  manner  of 
saying  it.  There  was,  however,  a  higher  moral  tone,  with  greater 
smcerity  of  manner — a  result  greatly  owing  to  the  influence  of 
Johnson.  In  poetry,  the  improvement  was  very  marked.  The 
artificialities  of  Pope  and  his  imitators  were  abandoned,  and  there 
was  a  gradual  return  to  nature  and  the  human  heart  as  the  true 
sources  of  poetic  inspiration.  This  improvement  was  begun  by 
Thomson  in  the  preceding  age,  and  carried  to  a  glorious  consum- 
mation near  the  close  of  this,  by  Burns,  Goldsmith,  and  Cowper. 

The  principal  events  of  this  age  were  the  French  Revolution, 
the  American  Revolution,  and  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings. 

The  authors  will  be  divided  into  two  classes  : — 

I.  The  Poets,  represented  by  Goldsmith,  Gray,  Burns,  and 
Cowper". 

II.  The  Prose  Writers,  represented  by  Johnson  and  Burke. 


I.  Poets  of  the  Age  of  Johnson. 

GOLDSMITH.   1728-1774. 

Oliver  Goldsmith  was  one  of  the  brilliant  galaxy  of  which 
Johnson  was  the  centre.  He  was  an  Irishman,  full  of  oddities 
and  eccentricities,  and  remarkable  alike  for  his  strength  and  His 
weakness.  He  is  equally  an  object  of  laughter  and  of  love,  of 
pity  and  admiration.  His  style  much  resembles  Addison's,  being 
pure,  easy,  graceful,  and  abounding  in  quaint  and  delightful 
humor.     (See  Irving's  Life  of  Goldsmith.) 

His  works  may  be  divided  into  (i)  Poetical,  (2)  Historical,  and 
(3)  Miscellaneous.     His  principal  poems  are   The  Traveller  and 

2 


26  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

The  Deserted  Village.  The  historical  works  are  mainly  compila- 
tions. Among  these  are  a  History  of  England^  History  of  RonUy 
History  of  Greece,  History  of  Animated  Nature,  etc.  His  mis- 
cellaneous works  embrace  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  (a  novel),  She 
Stoops  to  Conquer  (a  comedy),  Letters  from  a  Citizen  of  the 
World,  and  others. 

The  Deserted  Village,  the  Vicar  of  .Wakefield,  and  She  Stoops 
to  Conquer,  are  among  the  masterpieces  of  the  English  Language. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Man  wants  but  little  here  below, 
Nor  wants  that  little  long.  The  Hermit. 

II. 
To  me  more  dear,  congenial  to  my  heart, 
One  native  charm  than  all  the  gloss  of  art. 

The  Deserted  Village. 
III. 
Ill  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey. 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay. 

The  Traveller. 

IV. 

Such  is  the  patriot's  boast,  where'er  we  roam. 
His  first,  best  country  ever  is  at  home. 

The  Traveller. 
V. 

For  just  experience  tells,  in  every  spil. 

That  those  that  think  must  govern  those  that  toil. 

The  Traveller. 

VI. 

Our  greatest  glory  consists  not  in  never  falling,  but  in  rising 
every  time  we  fall. 


GRAY.  1716-1771. 
Thomas  Gray  was  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  day,  and 
most  of  his  life  was  that  of  a  literary  recluse.  His  most  cele- 
brated poem  (and,  indeed,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  ever  writ- 
ten) is  his  Elegy  Written  in  a  Country  Churchyard.  The  best 
of  his  other  poems  are  Ode  to  Eton  College,  Ode  to  Adversity, 
The  Bard,  and  Progress  of  Poesy, 


AGE  OF  JOHNSON.  27 

EXTRACT. 

Full  many  a  gem  of  purest  ray  serene 

The  dark,  unfathomed  caves  of  ocean  bear ; 

Full  many  a  flower  is  born  to  blush  unseen, 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air. 


BURNS.  1759-1796. 

Robert  Burns,  the  great  Scottish  song  writer,  was  born  in  1759, 
and  died  in  1796.  Much  of  his  life  was  passed  on  a  farm  ;  hence 
he  is  often  called  "the  Ayrshire  Plowman."  He  loved  and  lost 
Mary  Campbell, — his  "Highland  Mary" — -and  afterwards  married 
Jean  Armour.  Burns  was  a  man  of  strong  passions  and  weak 
will ;  hence  he  Was  unable  to  resist  temptation,  and  fell  into  habits 
of  intemperance  which  kept  him  in  poverty  and  cut  short  a  brilliant 
career.  But  with  all /his  failings,  he  was  a  man  of  noble  instincts 
and  generous  disposition,  and  his  memory  is  cherished  by  all  lovei*s 
of  song  with  genuine'  admiration.  No  other  name  can  so  arouse 
the  enthusiasm  of  a  Scotchman  as  that  of  Robert  Bums. 

Burns  has  written  a  few  narrative  and  didactic  poems,  but  he 
is  essentially  a  lyric  poet,  and  as  such  has  never  been  surpassed. 
Unlike  Pope  and  his  imitators,  he  was  a  true  child  of  Nature — 
listened  to  her  teachings,  sympathized  with  her  moods,  and  obeyed 
her  promptings. 

His  "songs gushed  from  his  heart 

As  showers  from  the  clouds  of  summer, 

Or  tears  from  the  eyelids  start." 

Hence  his  words  find  a  ready  response  in  the  universal  heart,  and 
his  Highland  Mary,  Bonny  Doon,  Auld  Lang  Syne,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  songs,  have  a  perennial  freshness,  and  have  become 
household  words  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken. 

Among  the  best  of  Burns's  poems  (in  addition  to  his  songs, 
which  are  "too  numerous  to  mention"),  are  The  Cotter' s  Satur- 
day Nighty  Tarn  O^Shanter,  Twa  Dogs,  To  a  Mouse,  To  a 
Mountain  Daisy,  and  Alan  was  Made  to  Mourn, 


28  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 

But  pleasures  are  like  poppies  spread, — 

You  seize  the  flower,  its  bloom  is  shed  ; 
Or  like  the  snow-fall  in  the  river, 
A  moment  white,  then  melts  forever. 

Tarn  O* Shanti*' 
II. 
Oh,  wad  some  power  the  giftie  gie  us 
To  see  oursels  as  ithers  see  us! 
It  wad  frae  monie  a  blunder  free  us 

And  foolish  notion. 
What  airs  in  dress  and  gait  wad  lea'  us. 

And  e'en  devotion.  To  a  Louse, 

III. 
Is  there  for  honest  poverty 

Wha  hangs  his  head  and  a'  that  ? 
The  coward  slave,  we  pass  him  by, 
We  dare  be  poor  for  a'  that. 
For  a'  that  and  a'  that, 
Our  toils  obscure  and  a'  that; 
The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp. 
The  man  's  the  gowd,  for  a'  that. 

Honest  Poverty. 


COWPER.    1731-1800. 

By  a  remarkable  coincidence,  Cowper's  birth  and  death  oc- 
curred exactly  a  century  after  those  of  Dryden.  He  was  of  noble 
blood,  was  liberally  educated,  and  was  intended  for  public  life; 
but  being  of  a  morbidly  sensitive  nature,  and  subject  to  attacks  of 
insanity,  he  passed  his  life  in  retirement.  Being  a  great  sufferer, 
he  wrote  for  diversion,  and  thus  became  a  great  poet.  Much  of 
his  success  was  due  to  the  tender  care  and  judicious  counsel  of 
two  excellent  women, — Mary  Unwin  and  Lady  Austin. 

Cowper  is  distinguished  for  his  poems  and  his  letters.  Among 
the  best  of  the  former  are — Lines  on  My  Mother's  Picture,  The 
Task  (a  long  poem  in  6  books),  his  Hymns ^  and  the  humorous 
ballad  of  Joh^i  Gilpin.  His  letters  are  among  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  epistolary  style  in  the  language.  They  have  fitly  been 
called  "talking  letters." 


AGE  OF  yOHNSON.  2i 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

God  made  the  country  and  man  made  the  town. 

The  Task,  Bk.  L 
II. 
Variety  's  the  very  spice  of  life, 
That  gives  it  all  its  flavor.  The  Task^  Bk.  II. 


Domestic  happiness  !  thou  only  bliss 
Of  Paradise,  that  has  survived  the  fall. 

The  Task,  Bk.  Ill 


He  is  the  freeman  whom  the  truth  makes  free, 
And  all  are  slaves  beside.  The  Task,  Bk.  V, 

V. 
God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 

His  wonders  to  perform ; 
He  plants  his  footsteps  in  the  sea, 

And  rides  upon  the  storm. — Hymn. 


OTHER  POETS  OF  THIS  AGE.  . 

James  Beattie  (1735-1803),  Prof,  of  Moral  Philosophy  at  Aberdeen,  author 
of  The  Minstrel,  and  a  celebrated  prose  work.  Essay  on  Truth. 

Thomas  Chatterton  (1752-1770),  the  boy  poet,  who  deceived  nearly  all 
the  scholars  of  his  age  by  his  imitations  of  Old  English  Poetry. 


II.  Prose  Writers  of  the  Age  of  Johnson. 


JOHNSON.  1 709-1 784.  : 

Samuel  Johnson  was  born  at  Litchfield  in  1709,  and  died  in 
1784.  He  attended  Oxford,  but  left  for  want  of  money;  married 
a  woman  old  enough  to  be  his  mother ;  opened  a  school,  but  failed 
for  want  of  pupils ;  and  finally  went  to  London,  without  money 
or  friends,  to  seek  employment  for  his  pen.  After  untold  hard- 
ships he  succeeded  in  raising  himself  above  want,  and  placing 


30  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

himself  at  the  head  of  the  English  writers  of  the  age.  Notwith- 
standing a  repulsive  exterior  and  disgusting  habits,  he  deservedly 
enjoyed  the  friendship  and  admiration  of  the  greatest  men  and 
women  of  the  kingdom.  His  conversational  powers  were  of  the 
highest  order,  and  he  is  as  much  distinguished  for  his  sayings,  re- 
corded by  his  biographer,  Boswell,  as  for  his  writings. 

Johnson  had  a  great  fondness  for  long,  sonorous  words,  and 
balanced  sentences.  Indeed,  so  marked  was  his  style  in  these 
respects,  that  it  has  been  called  "  Johnsonese,"  or  "  Johnsonian 
style."     (See  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson.) 

He  wrote  both  poetry  and  prose.  His  principal  poems  are 
London,  The  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes^  and  his  tragedy  of 
Irene.  His  chief  prose  works  are  his  contributions  to  The  Ram- 
bler, Rasselas  (a  romance).  Lives  of  the  Poets,  and  an  English 
Dictionary.  The  latter  was  a  prodigious  work  for  one  man,  and 
forms  an  enduring  monument  to  his  learning  and  industry. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Knowledge  is  of  two  kinds :  we  know  a  subject  ourselves,  or 
we  know  where  we  can  find  information  upon  it. 

II. 
Whoever  wishes   to  attain  an  English  style  familiar  but   not 
coarse,  and  elegant  but  not  ostentatious,  must  give  his  days  and 
nights  to  the  volumes  of  Addison. 

III. 
This  mournful  truth  is  eveiywhere  confessed. 
Slow  rises  worth  by  poverty  depressed.  London. 


Each  change  of  many-colored  life  he  dre^y, 
Exhausted  worlds  and  then  imagined  new; 
Existence  saw  him  spurn  her  bounded  reign. 
And  panting  time  toiled  after  him  in  vain.'^^ 

P^'ologue  spoken  by  Garrick  at  the  opeiting  of 
Drury  Lane  Theatre. 

*  Of  course  the  reference  is  to  Shakspeare. 


AGE    OF  yOHNSON.  31 

BURKE.   1730-1797. 
Among  the  friends  of  Dr.  Johnson  was  the  great  orator,  Ed- 
mund Burke.     He  was  a  man  of  fine  culture,  and  genius  of  the 
highest  order. 

His  most  celebrated  works  are — An  Essay  on  the  Sublime  and 
Beautiful^  Refiediorzs  on  the  French  Revolution,  Letter  to  a  Noble 
Lord  (the  Duke  of  Bedford),  and  his  great  Speech  on  the  Im- 
peachment of  Warren  Hastings. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Early  and  provident  fear  is  the  mother  of  safety. 

II. 
To  read  without  reflecting  is  like  eating  without  digesting. 

III. 
There  is,  however,  a  limit  at  which  forbearance  ceases  to  be  a 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

HISTORICAL. 

David  Hume  (1711-1776),  an  infidel  philosopher,  author  of  History  of 
England. 

Edward  Gibbon  (1737-1794),  author  of  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire. 

William  Robertson  (1721-1793),  a  Scotchman,  author  of  History  of 
Scotland,  History  of  Charles  V.  of  Germany,  and  History  of  America. 

FICTITIOUS. 

Samuel  Richardson  (1689-1761),  author  of  Pamela,  Clarissa  Harlowe, 
and  Sir  Charles  Grandison. 

Henry  Fielding  (1707-1754),  author  of  Joseph  Andrews,  Tom  Jones,  and 
Amelia. 

Tobias  George  Smollett  (1721-1771),  author  of  Roderick  Random 
Peregrine  Pickle,  and  Humphrey  Clinker. 

Lawrence  Sterne  (1713-1768),  an  irreligious  parson,  author  of  Tristram 
Shandy  and  Sentimental  Journey. 
V  Hannah  More  (1745-1833),  author  of  The  Inflexible  Captive  and  other 
dramas;  The  Shepherd  of  Salisbury  Plain,  Ccelebs  in  Search  of  a  Wife,  and 
other  tales  :  and  some  very  useful  works  on  Education.  She  was  a  great 
favorite  of  Dr.  Johnson's. 


32     •  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE. 

POLITICAL    AND   MISCELLANEOUS. 

Junius,  supposed  to  be  Sir  Philip  Francis  (1740-1818),  author  of  the  cele- 
brated Letters  of  Junius. 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  (1751-1816),  a  great  orator,  and  author  of 
School  for  Scandal. 

Horace  Walpole  (1717-1797),  author  of  Castle  of  Otranto  (a  romance), 
and  celebrated  for  his  letters,  which  have  been  published  in  nine  volumes. 

theological  and  metaphysical. 

Thomas  Reid,  D.  D.  (i 710-1796),  a  distinguished  Scotch  metaphysician, 
author  of  An  Inquiry  into  the  Human  Mind,  etc. 

Wm.  Paley,  D.  D.  ( 1 743-1805),  author  of  Natural  Theology,  Horae 
Paulinae,  etc. 

John  and  Charles  Wesley,  founders  of  Methodism,  eminent  as  scholars, 
preachers,  and  hymnists. 

Richard  Challoner,  D.  D.  (1691-1781),  a  learned  Bishop  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  author  of  an  English  Version  of  the  Bible,  Church  History,  etc. 


American  Contemporaries. 
Benj.  Franklin,  Thos.  Jefferson,  Alexander  Hamilton,  and  other  writers  o< 
the  Period  of  the  Revolution. 


PERIOD  VIII.— AGE  OF  SCOTT. 

1 800-1 830.  ^^ 

(Part  of  the  reign  of  Geo.  JH.,  and  reign  of  Geo.  IV.) 

THE  Age  of  Scott,  sometimes  called  the  Age  of  Romantic 
Poetry,  extends  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  to 
the  death  of  George  IV.,  in  1830.  The  reaction  from  the  correct 
and  artificial  school  of  poetry,  which  had  been  begun  nearly  a 
century  earlier  by  Thomson,  and  carried  on  by  Burns  and  Cow- 
per,  was  now  complete,  and  reached  its  culmination  in  the  metri- 
cal romances  of  Scott  and  the  impassioned  outbursts  of  Byron  and 
Shelley.  Much  of  the  romantic  character  of  the  literature  of  the 
age  is  probably  due  to  the  influence  of  the  collection  of  folk-songs 
or  ballads,  published  a  little  earlier  (1765)  by  Bishop  Percy.  We 
know  that  Scott  was  powerfully  influenced  by  them,  and  their  ef- 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  33 

fects  can  be  distinctly  traced  in  all  subsequent  poetry,  even  to  the 
present  day.     (See  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott.) 

The  principal  historical  events  of  the  age  were  the  downfall  ol 
Napoleon  and  the  war  of  1 812. 

The  authors  will  be  divided  into  two  classes : — 

I.  The  Poets,  represented  by  Byron,  Shelley,  Moore,  Keats, 
Campbell,  and  Wordsworth. 

II.  The  Prose  Writers,  represented  by  Scott,  Southey,  Cole- 
ridge, Wilson,  DeQuincey,  and  Lamb. 

Scott,  Southey,  Coleridge,  Wilson,  and  Campbell  were  distin- 
guished both  in  poetry  and  prose. 


I.  Poets  of  the  Age  of  Scott. 


LORD  BYRON.   1788-1824. 

George  Gordon  Noel  Byron,  the  most  splendid  genius  of  the 
age,  was  born  in  London  in  1788.  He  graduated  at  Oxford,  and 
then  travelled  for  about  two  years.  On  his  return  he  mar- 
ried Miss  Milbanke,  who  left  him  in  about  a  year,  soon-  after  the 
birth  of  their  daughter,  Ada.  He  then  quitted  England  forever, 
and  passed  the  rest  of  his  life,  in  the  grossest  dissipation,  on  the 
Continent,  mostly  in  Switzerland  and  Italy.  In  1824  he  vent  to 
Missolonghi  to  assist  the  Greeks  in  their  struggle  for  liberty,  where 
he  died  in  the  same  year,  at  the  age  of  thirty-six,  thus  gloriously 
ending  an  inglorious  and  wretched  life. 

Byron  was  a  great  genius,  but  not  in  the  best  sense  a  great  poet. 
He  was  great  in  a  small  way.  Instead  of  giving  veice  to  the 
healthful  impulses  and  aspirations  of  the  universal  heart,  he  filled 
the  universe  with  the  scoffs  and  sneers  and  fancied  woes  of  Lord 
Byron.  His  works  contain  some  magnificent  descriptions,  fine 
imagery,  and  noble  sentiments;  but  their  general  tone  is  misan- 
thropic, irreligious,  immoral,  and  therefore  unhealthful. 

His  finest  poem — and,  indeed,  one  of  the  grandest  poems  of 
2* 


34  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

the  century — is  Childe  Harold.  Among  the  best  of  his  other 
works  are — The  Dreavi,  The  Prisoner  of  Chillon,  Mazeppa,  The 
Bride  of  Abydos,  Parisina,  The  Giaour,  and  The  Siege  of 
Corinth.  His  longest  and  most  brilliant  poem  is  Don  yuan, 
but  it  is  unfit  to  read,  on  account  of  its  coarseness.  Beside  these 
he  wrote  Cain,  Manfred,  Marino  Faliero,  and  several  other 
dramas.  These  contain  powerful  passages,  but  are  on  the  whole 
very  defective  on  account  of  their  want  of  variety  in  action  and 
characters.  (See  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Byron,"  by  Thomas 
Moore.) 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Who  would  be  free,  themselves  must  strike  the  blow. 

11. 
The  drying  up  a  single  tear  has  more 
Of  honest  fame  than  shedding  seas  of  gore. 

III. 
All  who  joy  would  win, 
Must  share  it ;  Happiness  was  born  a  twin. 

IV. 

The  sky  is  changed  !  and  such  a  change !  O  night. 
And  storm,  and  darkness !  ye  are  wondrous  strong. 
Yet  lovely  in  your  strength  as  is  the  light 
Of  a  dark  eye  in  woman  !     Far  along 
From  peak  to  peak,  the  rattling  crags  among. 
Leaps  the  live  thunder ! — not  from  one  lone  cloud. 
But  every  mountain  now  has  found  a  tongue. 
And  Jura  answers  from  her  misty  shroud 
Back  to  the  joyous  Alps,  who  call  to  her  aloud. 

Childe  Harold,  C.  III.,  St.  g2. 


SHELLEY.   1792-1822. 

Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  the  most  poetical  of  all  poets,  was  born 
in  1792,  and  was  drowned  in  the  Bay  of  Spezzia,  Italy,  in  1822. 
He  is  the  author  of  several  powerful  dramas  and  of  some  long  nar- 
rative and  descriptive  poems,  but  he  is  essentially  a  lyric  poet, 
and  as  such  is  unexcelled.      The  Skylark,  The  Sensitive  Plant, 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  35 

and  The  Cloud  are  embodiments  of  the  very  spirit  of  poesy,  and 
shine  with  "  the  light  that  never  was  on  land  or  sea." 
EXTRACT. 
I.  Hail  to  thee,  blithe  spirit ! 

Bird  thou  never  wert, 
That  from  heaven,  or  near  it, 
Pourest  thy  full  heart 
In  profuse  strains  of  unpremeditated  art. 

3.  In  the  golden  lightning 

Of  the  sunken  sun. 
O'er  which  clouds  are  brightening, 
Thou  dost  float  and  run 
Like  an  unbodied  joy  whose  race  is  just  begun. 

6.  All  the  earth  and  air 

With  thy  voice  is  loud, 
As,  when  night  is  bare, 
From  one  lonely  cloud 
The  moon  rains  out  her  beams,  and  heaven  is  overflowed. 

13.  Teach  us,  sprite  or  bird. 

What  sweet  thoughts  are  thine ; 
I  have  never  heard 
Praise  of  love  or  wine 
That  panted  forth  a  flood  of  rapture  so  divine. 

21.  Teach  me  half  the  gladness 

That  thy  brain  must  know, 
Such  harmonious  madness 
From  my  lips  would  flow. 
The  world  should  listen  then,  as  I  am  listening  now. 

The  Skylark  (selected  stanzas). 


MOORE.  1779-1852. 
Thomas  Moore,  the  great  Irish  song  writer,  was  born  in  Dub- 
lin in  1779,  and  died  in  1852.  His  principal  poetical  works  are 
his  exquisite  Oriental  tale  entitled  Lalla  Rookh,  and  his  songs  and 
hymns,  many  of  which — such  as  The  Last  Rose  of  Summer^ 
Those  Evening  Bells ^  Come  ye  Disconsolate^  etc. — are  known  and 
sung  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken. 


36  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

EXTRACT. 
Let  Fate  do  her  worst,  there  are  relics  of  joy, 
Bright  dreams  of  the  past,  which  she  cannot  destroy. 
They  come  in  the  night-time  of  sorrow  and  care, 
And  bring  back  the  features  that  joy  used  to  wear. 

(  Long,  long  be  my  heart  with  such  memories  filled, 

Like  the  vase  in  which  roses  have  once  been  distilled ; 
You  may  break,  you  may  shatter  the  vase  if  you  will. 
But  the  scent  of  the  roses  will  hang  round  it  still. 

lareivell !  but  'wke7ievej;  etc. 


KEATS.     1796-1821. 

John  Keats,  a  young  poet  of  the  highest  promise,  died  in  1820, 

at  the  a^e  of  twenty-four.     His  principal  poems  are  Eitdymion^ 

Hyperion^    The  Eve  of  St.  Agfzes,    Ode  on  a  Grecian    Urn^  and 

Ode  to  a  Nightingale.     They  are  characterized  by  a  profusion  of 

beautiful  imagery,   and  great  wealth  of  classical    learning  and 

allusion. 

EXTRACTS.  , 

I. 
The  poetry  of  earth  is  never  dead. 

II. 
A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever.       Endymion. 


CAMPBELL.   1777-1844. 
Thomas   Campbell  M^as   distinguished  as  a  poet  and  a  prosist. 
His  principal  poems  are — Pleasures  of  Hope,  Gertrude  of  Hyo7mngt 
LochieVs   Warning,  O^  Connor's  Child,  and  Hohe^tlinden.     His 
principal  prose  work  is  his  Lectui'es  on  Poetry. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
The  world  was  sad,  the  garden  was  a  wild. 
And  man,  the  hermit,  sighed  till  woman  smiled. 

Pleasures  of  Hope. 
II. 
'Tis  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 
And  robes  the  mountain  in  its  azure  hue. 

Pleasures  of  Hope, 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  37 

III. 
To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind. 

Is  not  to  die.  Hallowed  Ground. 

IV. 

Triumphal  Arch,  that  fill'st  the  sky- 
When  storms  prepare  to  part, 

I  ask  not  proud  Philosophy 
To  tell  me  what  thou  art. 

Still  seem,  as  to  my  childhood's  sight, 

A  midway  station  given, 
For  happy  spirits  to  alight 

Betwixt  the  earth  and  heaven. 

To  the  Rainbow, 


WORDSWORTH.    1770-1850. 

William  Wordsworth,  the  principal  of  the  "  Lake  j^oets,"  was 
born  in  1770,  was  educated  at  Cambridge,  passed  a  tranquil  and 
uneventful  life,  and  died  at  Rydal  Mount  in  1850, — the  Poet- 
Laureate  of  England,  and  loved  and  admired  by  all  the  world. 
In  him  poetry  reached  its  completest  emancipation  from  the  arti- 
ficiality of  the  age  of  Queen  Anne.  The  love  of  nature  expressed 
in  the  lines, — 

'*  To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears," 

pervades  all  his  works,  and  forms  their  leading  characteristic.  For 
this  reason  he  may  appropriately  be  called  "the  English  Bryant," 
just  as  Bryant  may  be  called  "  the  American  Wordsworth."  He 
is  now,  by  common  consent,  placed  next  to  Milton  on  the  roll  of 
great  poets. 

Wordsworth's  principal  work  is  The  Excursion,  a  long  philo- 
sophical poem  in  blank  verse ;  but  most  readers  prefer  his  shorter 
poems,  such  as  Ode  on  Immortality,  Ode  to  Duty,  Tifitern  Abbey 
Lucy,  We  are  Seven^  etc. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
The  child  is  father  of  the  man. 
And  I  could  wish  my  days  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety.     The  Rainbow. 


COMMON-SCHO  OL    LITER  A  TURE. 


O  reader  !  had  you  in  your  mind 

Such  stores  as  silent  thought  can  bring, 

O  gentle  reader !  you  would  find 

A  tale  in  everything.  Simon  Lee, 


Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting; 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us,  our  life's  star, 

Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 
And  Cometh  from  afar : 

Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 

And  not  in  utter  nakedness. 
But  trailing  clou,ds  of  glory  do  we  come 

P>om  God,  who  is  our  home  : 
Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy. 

Ode  on  Ivwiortaliiy. 


OTHER  POETS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

Bryan  Waller  Procter,  "Barry  Cornwall"  (i79o-i874),a  fine  lyric  and 
'dramatic  poet,  author  of  Dramatic  Scenes,  Mirandola  (a  tragedy),  English 
Songs,  Memoir  of  Charles  Lamb,  etc. 

Rev.  Wm.  Lisle  Bowles  (1762-1850),  author  of  some  exquisite  sonnets,  etc. 

John  Keble  (1792-1866),  a  fine  sacred  poet,  author  of  The  Christian 
Year,  Lyra  Innoceniium.  several  Tracts  for  the  Times,  etc. 

Samuel  Rogers  (1763-1855),  author  of  Pleasures  of  Memory,  and  Italy. 

Joanna  Baillie  (1762-1851),  author  of  Plays  on  the  Passions,  Family  Le- 
gend, and  other  dramas;  also  some  religious  and  miscellaneous  works. 

Mrs.  Felicia  Hemans  (1794-1835),  author  of  Vespers  of  Palermo,  a  trage- 
dy ;  and  of  Graves  of  the  Household,  Casablanca,  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims, 
and  other  popular  poems. 

Letitia  E.  Landon.  afterwards  Mrs.  McLean  (1802-1838),  author  of  The 
Lost  Pleiad,  The  Iinprovisatrice,  Crescentius,  and  many  other  poems ;  also 
Romance  and  Reality,  and  other  novels. 

Rev.  George  Crabee  (1754-1832),  a  vigorous  and  graphic  narrative  poet, 
author  of  The  Library,  The  Village,  The  Parish  Register,  Sir  Eustace  Gray, 
etc.     He  is  almost  painfully  realistic  and  truthful. 

Bishop  Heber  (1783-1826),  author  of  "From  Greenland's  icy  mountains," 
and  other  beautiful  hymns. 

Robert  Pollok  (1799-1827),  author  of  The  Course  of  Time,  once  very 
popular. 

Thomas  Hood  (1798-1845),  a  great  wit  and  humorist,  also  author  of  some 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  39 

very  touching  serious  poems,  among  them  The  Death-bed,  The  Bridge  ol 
Sighs,  Song  of  the  Shirt,  etc. 

James  Montgomery  (i 771-1854),  author  of  Greenland,  Pelican  Island, 
Hymns,  etc. 

Jas.  Sheridan  Knowles  (1784-1862),  a  distinguished  dramatist,  author 
of  Virginius,  The  Wife,  The  Hunchback,  William  Tell,  etc. 

Scott  and  several  others  vv ho  are  sometimes  classed  as  poets,  will  be  con- 
sidered under  the  head  of  prose  writers. 

American  Contemporaries. 
Robert  Treat  Paine,  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  and  Fitz-Greene  Halleck. 


II.  Prose  Writers  of  the  Age  of  Scott. 


SCOTT.  1771-1832. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  the  great  Scotch  poet  and  novelist,  was  born 
in  Edinburgh,  in  177 1.  He  was  not  a  profound  scholar,  but 
being  a  great  reader  and  having  a  wonderful  memory,  he  ac- 
quired a  vast  amount  of  historical  and  legendary  lore,  which  he 
poured  forth  in  boundless  profusion  in  his  works. 

Scott  was  truly  a  great  man.  Great  in  poetry,  great  in  prose, 
great  in  character, — he  was  great  also  in  misfortune.  Having 
accumulated  a  large  fortune,  and  built  himself  a  fine  mansion 
known  as  Abbotsford,  he  lost  everything  by  the  failure  of  a  pub- 
lishing house,  and  was  plunged  in  debt  to  the  amount  of  over 
half  a  million  dollars.  Undismayed,  he  applied  himself,  though 
nearly  sixty  years  old,  to  the  payment  of  this  immense  sum,  and 
succeeded,  though  at  the  expense  of  his  life.  In  1832,  broken  in 
mind  and  body,  he  died,  amid  the  lamentations  of  all  Scotland, 
and  was  buried  in  Dryburgh  Abbey. 

Scott's  works  are  of  three  classes:  i.  Poems,  2.  Novels,  3. 
Miscellaneous. 

His  principal  poems  are  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel^  The 
Lady  of  the  Lake,  and  Marmion. 

His  novels,  known  as  the  Waverley  Novels,  twenty-nine  in 
number,  are  among    the  greatest    creations  of   human    genius. 


40  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Among  the  best  of  them  are —  Waverley,  Guy  Mannering^  Old 
Mortality,  Heart  of  Mid- Lothian ,  Legend  of  Montrose,  Ivanhoe^ 
and  Kenilworth. 

The  most  celebrated  of  his  miscellaneous  works  are  Tales  of  a 
Grandfather,  Life  of  Napoleon,  and  History  of  Scotland. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Tears  are  the  softening  showers  which  cause  the  seed  of  heaven 
to  spring  up  in  the  human  heart.  ^ 

II. 
When  a  man  has  not  a  good  reason  for  doing  a  thing,  he  has 
one  good  reason  for  letting  it  alone. 
III. 
Oh,  many  a  shaft  at  random  sent, 
Finds  mark  the  archer  little  meant ; 
And  many  a  word  at  random  spoken, 
May  soothe  or  wound  a  heart  that 's  broken. 

Lord  of  the  Isles, 

IV. 

In  peace,  Love  tunes  the  bhepherd's  reed ; 

In  war^  he  mounts  the  warrior's  steed ; 

In  halls,  in  gay  attire  is  seen ; 

In  hamlets,  dances  on  the  green. 

Love  rules  the  court,  the  camp,  the  grove, 

And  men  below,  and  gods  above ; 

For  love  is  heaven,  and  heaven  is  love. 

Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel, 


SOUTHEY.  1774-1843. 
Robert  Southey  is  sometimes  classed  among  the  poets,  but  his 
best  writings  are  in  prose.  He  was  one  of  the  most  industrious 
and  prolific  authors  of  the  age.  His  best  prose  works  are  his 
Life  of  Nelson,  Life  of  Cowper,  and  Life  of  Wesley.  His  best 
poems  are  Thalaha  and  Curse  of  Kehatiia. 
EXTRACTS. 


Call  not  that  man  wretched  who,  whatever  ills  he  suffers,  has  a 
child  to  love. 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  41 


How  beautiful  is  night! 
A  dewy  freshness  fills  the  silent  air; 
No  mist  obscures,  nor  cloud  nor  speck  nor  stain 

Breaks  the  serene  of  heaven  : 
In  full-orbed  glory  yonder  moon  divine 
Rolls  through  the  dark  blue  depths ; 

Beneath  her  steady  ray 

The  desert  circle  spreads 
Like  the  round  ocean  girdled  with  the  sky. 

How  beautiful  is  night !  Tkalaba. 


COLERIDGE.  1772-1834. 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  Southey,  and  Wordsworth  were  inti- 
mately associated,  and  belong  to  the  group  called  the  "Lake 
Poets."  Coleridge,  like  Southey,  is  greater  in  prose  than  poetry, 
though  great  in  both.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  thinkers  and 
talkers  that  ever  lived;  but  he  lacked  continuity  of  thought, 
hence  he  has  left  no  works  commensurate  with  his  great  genius. 

Among  his  best  prose  works  are — Aids  to  Reflection,  The  Friend, 
Lectures  on  Shakspeare,  Lay  Sermons,  Table  Talk,  and  Biogra- 
phia  Literaria.  His  chief  poems  are  Rime  of  the  Ancient  Mari- 
ner and  Christabel. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Religion  is  the  most  gentlemanly  thing  in  the  world. 

II. 
Cleverness  is  a  sort  of  genius  for  instrumentality.     It  is  the 
brain  of  the  hand. 

III. 
Greatness  and  goodness  are  not  means,  but  ends ! 
Hath  he  not  always  treasures,  always  friends. 
The  good  great  man? — three  treasures, — love,  and  light, 
And  calm  thoughts,  regular  as  infants'  breath ; 
And  three  firm  friends,  more  sure  than  day  and  night, — 
Himself,  his  Maker,  and  the  angel  death.  Reproof. 


42  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

PROF.  WILSON.  1785-1854. 
Prof.  John  Wilson,  who  sometimes  wrote  under  the  name  of 
"Christopher  (or  Kit)  North,"  was  long  the  editor  of  Blackwood's 
Magazine,  and  Professor  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  He 
wrote  poems  and  novels  that  were  well  received,  but  his  reputa- 
tion rests  chiefly  upon  his  critical  Essays,  and  the  brilliant  series 
of  articles  published  under  the  title  of  Nodes  Ambrosiana.  His 
style  is  very  beautiful  and  attractive. 

EXTRACT. 

For  every  sort  of  suffering  there  is  sleep  provided  by  a  gracious 
Providence,  save  that  of  sin. 


DE  QUINCEY.  1785-1859. 
Thomas  De  Quincey,  known  as  "  The  English  Opium  Eater," 
was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  writers  of  the  age.  He  was  a  man 
of  wonderful  genius  and  learning,  but,  like  Coleridge,  lacked  con- 
tinuity of  purpose.  Macaulay  says  of  him  that  "  he  finished 
nothing  but  his  sentences."  His  style  is  unsurpassed  by  any  Eng- 
lish writer.  His  chief  works  are  his  Confessions  of  an  English 
Opium  Eater  and  Essays. 

EXTRACT. 

Far  better,  and  more  cheerfully,  I  could  dispense  with  some 
part  of  the  downright  necessaries  of  life,  than  with  certain  circum- 
stances of  elegance  and  propriety  in  the  daily  habits  of  using 
them. 


LAMB.   1775-1834. 

Charles  Lamb,  who  wrote  under  the  name  of  "  Elia,"  excelled 
as  an  essayist  and  a  letter  writer.  The  essays  of  Elia  have  a  sub- 
tle and  peculiar  charm  of  style  that  can  nowhere  else  be  found, 
and  that  will  always  render  Lamb  a  favorite  among  cultivated 

people. 

EXTRACT. 

How  often  you  are  irresistibly  drawn  to  a  plain,  unassuming 
woman,  whose  soft  silvery  tones  render  her  positively  attractive  ! 


AGE    OF  SCOTT.  43 

In  the  social  circle,  how  pleasant  it  is  to  hear  a  woman  talk  in 
that  low  key  which  always  characterizes  the  true  lady !  In  the 
sanctuary  of  home,  how  such  a  voice  soothes  the  fretful  child,  and 
cheers  the  weary  husband ! 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

HISTORICAL. 

Henry  Hallam  (i  778-1859),  author  of  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Consti- 
tutional History  of  England,  and  Literature  of  Europe. 

John  Lingard  (1771-1851),  author  of  History  of  England,  from  a  Roman 
Catholic  point  of  view,  written  with  great  candor,  learning,  and  ability. 

Thos.  Arnold,  of  Rugby  (1795-1842),  History  of  Rome,  and  Lectures  on 
Modern  History. 

FICTITIOUS. 

Wm.  Godwin  (1756-1836),  author  of  Caleb  Williams,  St.  Leon,  and  other 
novels;  also  of  Life  of  Chaucer,  Political  Justice,  etc. 

Countess  D'Arblay  (1752-1840),  daughter  of  Dr.  Burney,  author  of  Eve- 
lina, etc. 

Maria  Edgeworth  (1767-1849),  author  of  Early  Lessons,  Parent's  Assist- 
ant, Castle  Rackrent,  etc. 

Jane  Austen  (1775-1817),  author  of  Pride  and  Prejudice,  Sense  and  Sensi- 
bility, etc. 

John  Galt  (i  779-1839),  a  prolific  Scotch  writer,  author  of  Ayrshire  Lega- 
tees, Annals  of  a  Parish,  etc. 

Miss  Mary  Russell  Mitford  (1786-1855),  author  of  Our  Village,  Ameri- 
can Tales,  etc. 

Capt.  Marryatt  (i 792-1848),  author  of  Midshipman  Easy,  Peter  Simple, 
Jacob  Faithful,  etc. 

scientific. 

DuGALD  Stewart  (1753-1828),  Prof,  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgli,  author  of  Elements  of  the  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Mind, 
Outlines  of  Moral  Philosophy,  etc. 

Jeremy  Bentham  (1748-1832),  a  bold  and  original  writer  on  legal  and 
political  science. 

CRITICAL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS, 

Wm.  Gifford  (1756-1826),  a  satirist  and  slashing  reviewer,  long  editor  of 
The  London  Qita7-terly. 

Sir  Jas.  Mackintosh  (i 765-1832),  a  statesman,  a  college  professor,  and 
brilliant  writer  on  ethical,  political,  and  historical  subjects. 

Wm.  Hazlitt  (1778-1830),  author  of  several  volumes  of  critical  Essays. 

Sydney  Smith  (1771-1845),  Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  one  of  the  wittiest  and 
ablest  of  the  contributors  to  the  Edinburgh  Review. 


44  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

Lord  Jeffrey  (i 773-1850),  a  very  able  essayist,  long  editor  of  the  Ediiu 
burgh  Review. 

Lord  Brougham  (i779'i868),  a  great  scholar,  orator,  statesman,  And 
reviewer. 

J.  G.  LocKHART  (i  794-1854),  son-in-law  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  author  of  Life 
of  Scott,  GifFord's  successor  as  editor  of  the  London  Quarterly  Review. 

Walter  Savage  Landor  (i  775-1864),  author  of  Imaginary  Conversations, 
and  some  very  graceful  Poems. 

Leigh  Hunt  (1784-1859),  a  genial  poet  and  critic,  author  of  Rimmi,  The 
Palfrey,  A  Legend  of  Florence,  ere. 

Mrs.   Anna   Letitia  Barbauld   (1743-1825),   a    distinguished    teacher, 
author  of  Early  Lessons  for  Children,  Hymns  in  Prose,  etc. 
theological. 

Dr.  Thomas  Chalmers  (1780-1847),  a  powerful  and  learned  preacher, 
leader  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  Prof,  of  Theology  in  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  etc.,  and  author  of  Astronomical  Discourses,  Natural  Theology, 
Christian  Evidences  and  many  other  works.  One  of  the  greatest  men  that 
Scotland  has  ever  produced. 


American  Contemporaries. 
William  Wirt,  John  James  Audubon,  Chancellor  Kent,  and  Chief  Justice 
Marshall. 


PERIOD  IX VICTORIAN  AGE. 

1830-1875. 

(Reigns  of  William  IV.  and  Queen  Victoria.) 

THE  Victorian  Age  has  been  one  of  great  productiveness  in  lit- 
erature, science,  and  invention.  Its  poetry,  which  is  both  abun- 
dant and  excellent,  has  a  marked  peculiarity,  being  of  a  more 
reflective  and  thoughtful  character  than  formerly^  and  being  pene- 
trated through  and  through  with  the  scientific  ideas  of  the  period. 
In  prose  literature  this  deserves  to  rank  as  our  golden  age.  More 
great  works  have  been  produced  in  history,  in  philosophy,  in  science, 
and  above  all  in  fiction,  than  in  any  other  era  of  the  world's  his- 
tory. Indeed,  so  great  have  been  the  amount,  variety,  and  excel- 
lence of  its  productions  in  the  latter  department,  that  it  has  by 
some  writers  been  denominated  "  the  age  of  prose  fiction." 


VICTORIAN  A  GE.  45 

The  only  historical  event  of  this  age  that  has  affected  the  litera- 
ture of  England,  is  the  Crimean  war. 

The  authors  will  be  divided  into  two  classes  :— 

I.  The  Poets,  represented  by  Tennyson,  Mrs.  Browning, 
Robert  Browning,  Jean  Ingelow,  Swinburne,  and  Morris. 

II.  The  Prose  Writers,  represented  by  Macaulay,  Dickens, 
Thackeray,  Lord  Lytton,  George  Eliot,  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
Darwin,  Carlyle,  and  Ruskin. 


I.  Poets  of  the  Victorian  Age. 


TENNYSON.  1810- 

The  truest  representative  and  completest  embodiment  of  the 
poetic  genius  of  the  Victorian  age  is  Alfred  Tennyson,  Poet-Lau- 
reate of  England.  Its  fine  culture ;  its  analyzing,  inquiring,  doubt- 
ing spirit ;  its  subtlety  of  thought  and  daintiness  of  phrase, — are 
all  shown  in  their  highest  perfection  in  the  works  of  this  great 
poet. 

Alfred  Tennyson  was  born  in  18 10,  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 
and  now  lives  at  Petersfield,  Hampshire.  He  is  a  man  of  refined 
tastes,  wide  culture,  profound  thought,  and  studious  and  retired 
habits ;  and  the  beauty  and  purity  of  his  works  are  but  reflec- 
tion of  the  character  of  the  man. 

The  following  are  among  his  finest  poems :  The  May  Queen, 
Locksley  Hall,  the  Princess,  In  Memoriam,  The  Talkmg  Oak, 
Maud,  Enoch  Arden,  and  Idyls  of  the  King. 

Of  those  named,  probably  the  greatest  are  In  Memoriam  and 
The  Idyls  of  the  King.  The  former  is  a  lament  for  the  untimely 
death  of  his  bosom-friend,  Arthur  Hallam,  son  of  the  historian; 
the  latter  is  a  sort  of  metrical  romance,  celebrating  the  lives  and 
adventures  of  the  mythical  King  Arthur  aiid  his  Knights  of  the 
Round  Table.*     The  Princess  also  is   a  great  poem.     It  is  a 

♦See  Bulfinch's  "  Age  of  Chivalry,"  where  the  romances  of  Arthur  are 
given  in  detail. 


46  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

poetical  discussion  of  the  nature  of  woman,  and  her  relation  to 
man  and  to  society ;  and  it  serves  as  a  setting  for  a  number  of 
exquisite  songs,  such  as  Sweet  and  Low,  The  Bugle  Song,  etc. 
Tennyson's  latest  work  is  a  drama  entitled  Queen  Mary.  It  is  an 
interesting  historical  study,  but  not  a  great  drama,  and  adds  no- 
thing to  the  author's  fame. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
I  hold  it  true,  whate'er  befall, 
I  feel  it  when  I  sorrow  most, — 
'T  is  better  to  have  loved  and  lost 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all. 

In  Memoriam,  84. 
II. 
Howe'er  it  be,  it  seems  to  me, 
'T  is  only  noble  to  be  good ; 
Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets. 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

Lady  Clara  Vere  de  Vere. 
III. 
I  sometimes  hold  it  half  a  sin 
To  put  in  words  the  grief  I  feel. 
For  words,  like  nature,  half  reveal 
And  half  conceal  the  soul  within. 

In  Memoriam,  5. 
IV. 
Ah  God,  for  a  man  with  heart,  head,  hand, 
Like  some  of  the  simple  great  ones  gone 

Forever  and  ever  by ; 
One  still  strong  man  in  a  blatant  land, 

Whatever  they  call  him,  what  care  I  ? — 
Aristocrat,  autocrat,  democrat — one 

Who  can  rule,  and  dare  not  lie.  Alaud,  X.,  5. 


MRS.  BROWNING.  1809^1861. 
In  the  opinion  of  a  very   competent  critic,"^  Elizabeth   Barrett 
Browning  was  not  only  "the  greatest  female  poet  that  England  has 
produced,  but  more  than  this,  the  most  inspired  woman,  so  far  as 

♦Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  ("Victorian  Poets,"  p.  115). 


VICTORIAN  A  GE.  47 

known,  of  all  who  have  composed  in  ancient  or  modern  tongues, 
or  flourished  in  any  land  or  clime."  Elizabeth  Barrett  was  bom 
in  1809,  received  a  fine  classical  education,  married  the  poet 
Robt.  Browning,  and  died  in  Italy  in  1861.  She  was  a  woman 
of  delicate  health,  much  of  the  time  an  invalid, — a  fact  that  must 
be  borne  in  mind  in  estimating  her  genius.  Had  her  physical 
'strength  been  equal  to  her  mental,  she  might  have  equalled,  if  not 
surpassed,  the  Poet-Laureate  himself. 

Her  greatest  poem  is  Aurora  Leigh.  Among  the  best  of  her 
other  poems  are — Lady  Geraldine' s  Courtship,  Casa  Guidi  Win- 
dowsy  Bertha  in  the  Lane,  Cowper'^s  Grave,  The  Cry  of  the  Hu- 
man, The  Cry  of  the  Children,  A  Child  Asleep,  He  Giveth  His 
Beloved  Sleep,  and  her  Sonnets. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
A  happy  life  means  prudent  compromise. 

Aurora  Leigh, 
II. 
All  actual  heroes  are  essential  men. 
And  all  men  possible  heroes.  Aurora  Leigh. 

III. 
It  takes  a  soul 
To  move  a  body ;  it  takes  a  high-souled  man 
To  move  the  masses.  Aurora  Leigh, 

IV. 
As  the  moths  around  a  taper. 
As  the  bees  around  a  rose, 
As  the  gnats  around  a  vapor, 
So  the  spirits  group  and  close 
Round  about  a  holy  childhood,  as  if  drinking  its  repose. 

A  Child  Asleep, 

V. 

Of  all  the  thoughts  of  God  that  are 
Borne  inward  unto  souls  afar. 

Along  the  Psalmist's  music  deep, 
Now  tell  me  if  that  any  is 
For  gift  of  grace  surpassing  this — 

"He  giveth  His  beloved  sleep." 


48  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

VI. 

Truth  is  large.     Our  aspiration 

Scarce  embraces  half  we  be. 
Shame!  to  stand  in  His  creation, 

And  doubt  Truth's  sufficiency !  The  Dead  Pan, 


ROBERT  BROWNING.   1812- 
Robert  Browning,  husband  of  Mrs.  E.  B.  Browning,  is  by  many 
regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  poets  of  the  age.     Most  of  his 
works  are  dramatic,  his  finest  dramas  being  Pippa  Passes,  A  Blot 
on  the  Scutcheon,  and  Colo7?ibe''s  Birthday.     Of  his  other  works, 
The  Ring  attd  the  Book  is  the  longest,  and  it  is  also  one  of  the 
greatest,  both  in  its  faults  and  its  merits.     All  his  works  exhibit 
great  power,  but  the  style  of  most  of  them  is  so  elliptical  and  ob- 
scure as  to  baffle  and  repel  ordinary  readers.     His  only  popular 
poems  are  his  shorter  ones,  most  of  which  are  among  the  very  best 
of  their  class.     Among  these  are — Evelyn  Hope,  Ratisbon,   The 
Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin,  How  They  Brought  the  Good  News  from 
Ghent  to  Aix,  My  Lost  Duchess,  and  Herve  Riel. 
MEETING. 
The  gray  sea,  and  the  long,  black  land, 
And  the  yellow  half-moon  large  and  low, 
And  the  startled  little  waves,  that  leap 
In  fiery  ringlets  from  their  sleep, 
As  I  gain  the  cove  with  pushing  prow, 
And  quench  its  speed  in  the'slushy  sand. 

Then  a  mile  of  warm,  sea  scented  beach, 

Three  fields  to  cross,  till  a  farm  appears, 

A  tap  at  the  pane,  the  quick  sharp  scratch 

And  blue  spurt  of  a  lighted  match. 

And  a  voice  less  loud,  through  its  joys  and  fears, 

T^han  the  two  hearts  beating  each  to  each. 


MISS  INGELOW.  1830- 
Jean  Ingelow,  on  the  death  of  Mrs.  Browning,  became  "by 
divine  right"  the  queen  of  English  song.    She  is  a  true  lyric  poet. 
Her  poems  are  the  spontaneous,  soulful  utterances  of  one  who,  bird- 


VICTORIAN  A  GE.  49 

like,  sings  because  she  "  cannot  choose  but  sing."     Among  hei 

most  beautiful  poems  are — Songs  of  Seven,  The  Letter  Z.,  Songs 

of  the  Night  Watches,  Songs  with  Preludes,  Songs  on  the  Voices 

of  Birds,  and  High  Tide  on  the  Coast  of  Lincolnshire.     She  has 

also  written  Off  the   Skelligs,  and  one  or  two  other  novels ;  and 

several  volumes  of  stories  for  children,  of  which  Mopsa  the  Fairy 

is  the  best.    All  her  works  have  an  immense  sale,  both  in  England 

and  America. 

EXTRACTS, 

I. 

Are  there  voices  in  the  valley,"^ 

Lying  near  the  heavenly  gate  ? 
When  it  opens,  do  the  harp-strings. 

Touched  within,  reverberate  ? 
When,  like  shooting  stars,  the  angels 

To  your  couch  at  nightfall  go, 
Are  their  swift  wings  heard  to  rustle  ? 

Tell  me  !  for  you  know. 

A  Mother  shoiving  the  Portrait  of  her  Child. 

II. 
Ileigh  ho  !   daisies  and  buttercups, 

Fair  yellow-daffodils  stately  and  tall! 
A  sunshiny  world  full  of  laughter  and  leisure. 

And  fresh  hearts  unconscious  of  sorrow  and  thrall ! 
Send  down  on  their  pleasure  smiles  passing  its  measure, 
God  that  is  over  us  all ! 

Seven  Times  Four.     Maternity, 

III. 

We  know  they  music  made 

In  heaven,  ere  man's  creation. 
But  when  God  threw  it  down  to  us  that  strayed, 

It  dropt  with  lamentation, 
And  ever  since  doth  its  sweetness  shade 

With  sighs  for  its  first  station.     A  Cottage  in  a  Chine» 
IV. 

Man  dwells  apart,  though  not  alone. 

He  walks  among  his  peers  unread ; 
The  best  of  thoughts  which  he  hath  known, 

For  lack  of  listeners  are  not  said. 

Afternoon  at  a  Parsonage, 

•The  valley  of  Childhood.     Compare  Wordsworth's  line— 
2  '*  Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy." 


50  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

SWINBURNE.   1843- 

Algernon  Charles  Swinburne  is  the  most  distinguished  of  the 
younger  English  poets.  One  of  his  chief  merits  is  his  absolute 
mastery  of  all  the  resources  of  the  English  language,  both  as  to 
vocabulary  and  rhythm.  His  chief  defects  are  mysticism  or  ob- 
scurity of  style,  and  sensuousness  of  tone  amounting  in  his  earlier 
poems  (^Laus  Veneris,  for  example)  to  sensuality. 

His  principal  works  are — Atalanta  in  Calydon,  Chastelard,  A 
Song  of  Italy ^  and  BothivelL 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
No  man  doth  well,  but  God  hath  part  in  him. 

II. 

But  ye,  keep  ye  on  earth 

Your  lips  from  over-speech; 
Loud  words  and  longing  are  so  little  worth, 

And  the  end  is  hard  to  reach ; 
For  silence  after  grievous  things  is  good, 

And  reverence,  and  the  fear  that  makes  men  whole, 
And  shame,  and  righteous  governance  of  blood, 

And  lordship  of  the  soul. 

Atalanta  in  Calydon. 
III. 
O  fair  green-girdled  mother  of  mine, 

Sea,  that  art  clothed  with  the  sun  and  the  rain, 
Thy  sweet,  hard  kisses  are  strong  like  wine, 

Thy  large  embraces  are  keen  like  pain  1 
Save  me  and  hide  me  with  all  thy  waves. 

Find  me  one  grave  of  thy  thousand  graves. 
Those  pure,  cold,  populous  graves  of  thine, 

Wrought  without  hand  in  a  world  without  stain. 

Atalanta  in  Calydon. 


MORRIS.  1834- 
William  Morris  is  the  greatest  narrative  poet  we  have  had  since 
Chaucer,  whose  disciple  he  is,  and  whom  in  his  simplicity  and 
antique  manner  he  greatly  resembles.     His  principal  works  are 
The  Life  and  Death  of  Jason  and  The  Earthly  Paradise. 


VICTORIAN  AGE.  51 

EXTRACT. 
(Description  of  Pygmalion's  meeting  with  the  statue  with  which  he  had 
fallen  in  love,  after  Venus  had  made  it  a  living  woman.) 

Yet  wl^ile  he  stood  and  knew  not  what  to  do, 
With  yearning,  a  strange  thrill  of  hope  there  came, 
A  shaft  of  new  desire  now  pierced  him  through, 
And  therewithal  a  soft  voice  called  his  name ; 
And  when  he  turned,  with  eager  eyes  aflame, 
He  saw  betwixt  him  and  the  setting  sun 
The  lively  image  of  his  loved  one. 

He  trembled  at  the  sight,  for  though  her  eyes, 
Her  very  lips,  were  such  as  he  had  made. 
And  though  her  tresses  fell  but  in  such  guise 
As  he  had  wrought  them,  now  was  she  arrayed 
In  that  fair  garment  that  the  priest  had  laid 
Upon  the  goddess  on  that  very  morn. 
Dyed  like  the  setting  sun  upon  the  corn. 

Speechless  he  stood,  but  she  now  drew  anear. 

Simple  and  sweet  as  she  was  wont  to  be. 

And  once  again  her  silver  voice  rang  clear, 

Filling  his  soul  with  great  felicity. 

And  thus  she  spoke  :  "  Wilt  thou  not  come  to  me, 

O  dear  companion  of  my  new  found  life  ? — 

For  I  am  called  thy  lover  and  thy  wife." 

The  Earthly  Paradise. 


OTHER  POETS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Faber  (1815-1863),  distinguished  equally  in  poetry  and  prose; 
author  of  Cherwell  Water-Lily,  Styrian  Lake,  Sir  Lancelot,  etc.,  poems  ;  and 
of  All  for  Jesus,  Growth  in  Holiness,  Ethel's  Book,and  other  prose  works. 

Mrs.  C.  E.  S.  Norton  (1808-  ),  granddaughter  of  R.  B.  Sheridan, 
author  of  The  Undying  One,  The  Child  of  the  Islands,  Aunt  Carry's  Ballads, 
Stuart  of  Dunleith  (a  romance),  and  many  other  works, 

Adelaide  A.  Procter,  the  "golden-tressed  Adelaide"  (1825-1864),  daugh- 
ter of  B.  W.  Procter,  author  of  One  by  One,  Words,  A  New  Mother,  and 
many  other  exquisite  poems. 

Coventry  Patmore  (1823-        ),  author  of  the  Angel  in  the  House,  etc. 

Gerald  Massey  (1828-  ),  a  self-made  poet,  author  of  The  Babe  Christa- 
bel,  Craigrook  Castle,  The  Wee  White  Rose,  etc.,  some  very  beautiful. 

Charles  Mackay,  LL.  D.  (1814-  ),  author  of  Voices  from  the  Crowd, 
Town  Lyrics,  and  other  poems  ;  also  many  prose  works. 

"Owen  Meredith,"  now  Lord  Lytton  (1831-  ),  son  of  the  great  novel- 
ist, author  of  Lucille,  and  Fables  in  Verse. 


52  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

Robert  Buchanan  (1841-  ),  author  of  Idyls  and  Legends  of  Inverburaf 
London  Poems,  etc. 

Sydney  Dobell  (1824- 1874),  author  of  How's  the  Boy,  The  Milkmaid's 
Song,  Home  Wounded,  Tommy's  Dead,  etc.  A  young  poet  of  striking  and 
original  genius. 


American  Contemporaries. 
Bryant,  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Lowell,  Holmes,  Taylor, Stedman,  Aldricn 
Alice  Gary  etc.,  etc. 


II.  Prose  AVriters  of  the  Victorla.n  Age. 


MACAULAY.    1800-1859. 

Thomas  Babington  Macaulay,  the  most  brilliant  critical  and 
historical  writer  of  the  Victorian  age,  was  born  in  1800.  He 
graduated  at  Cambridge,  where  he  distinguished  himself  in 
scholarship  and  literature,  and  afterwards  studied  law.  He  was 
many  years  a  member  of  Parliament,  filled  several  important  posi- 
tions under  the  government,  was  raised  to  the  peerage  in  1857,  as 
Baron  Macaulay,  and  died  in  1859.  Every  position  he  filled  .with 
honor  and  ability,  but  his  chief  distinction  was  achieyed  by  his 
writings,  the  principal  of  which  are  his  Lays  of  Ancient  RonUy 
Essays,  and  History  of  Eftgland.  His  ballads,  Horatius  at  the 
Bridge y  The  Battle  of  Ivry,  etc.,  are  full  of  life  and  vigor;  his 
essays  are  the  most  magnificent  productions  of  their  kind  in  the 
whole  range  of  English  literature ;  and  his  Histoiy  of  Eitgland  is 
the  most  popular  history  that  ever  was  written.  The  aggregate 
sale  of  the  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  the  latter,  in  the  first  four 
weeks  after  their  publication,  was  over  150,000  copies  ! 

Macaulay  is  the  finest  rhetorician,  both  as  to  diction  and  style, 
of  all  English  writers.  His  language  is  pure,  and  his  sentences 
clear,  harmonious,  and  strong,  and  so  varied,  as  to  length  and 
structure,  as  to  give  the  utmost  ease  and  pleasure  to  the  reader. 
Indeed  it  may  be  questioned  whether  in  some  cases  he  is  not  too 
oratorical ;  whether  he  does  not  sometimes  forget  the  force  of  his 


VICTORIAN  A  GE.  53 

words,  and  overstate  a  fact  for  the  sake  of  a  sonorous  period  or  a 
fine  antithesis.  After  making  every  deduction,  however,  we  may 
safely  pronounce  him  one  of  the  greatest  of  English  prose  writers. 

EXTRACTS. 


There  is  only  one  cure  for  the  evils  which  newly  acquired 
freedom  produces,  and  that  cure  is  freedom  ! 

Essay  on  Miltc '/. 
II. 
The  real  security  of  Christianity  is  to  be  found  in  its  bene^o]ent 
morality,  in  its  exquisite  adaptation  to  the  human  heart,  in  the 
facility  with  which  its  scheme  accommodates  itself  to  the  capacity 
of  every  human  intellect,  in  the  consolation  which  it  bears  to  the 
hodse  of  mourning,  in  the  light  with  which  it  brightens  the  great 
mystery  of  the  grave. 

Review  of  Southeyi's  Colloquies  on  Society. 


We  often  hear  of  the  magical  influence  of  poetry.  The  ex- 
pression in  general  means  nothing;  but,  applied  to  the  writings 
of  Milton,  it  is  most  appropriate.  His  poetry  acts  like  ,an  incan- 
tation. Its  merit  lies  less  in  its  obvious  meaning  than  in  its  occult 
power.  There  would  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  be  no  more  in  his 
words  than  in  other  words ;  but  they  are  words  of  enchantment : 
no  sooner  are  they  pronounced  than  the  past  is  the  present,  and 
the  distant  near.  New  forms  of  beauty  start  at  once  into  exist- 
ence ;  and  all  the  burial  places  of  the  memory  give  up  their  dead. 

Essay  on  Milton. 

[Though  greatly  overrunning  our  limits,  we  cannot  refrain  from  giving 
the  following  extract,  which  for  magnificence  of  style  and  sublimity  of 
thought  has  never  been  surpassed.] 

Surely  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  no  external  advantage  is 
to  be  compared  with  that  purification  of  the  intellectual  eye,  which 
gives  us  to  contemplate  the  infinite  wealth  of  the  mental  world ; 
all  the  hoarded  treasures  of  the  primeval  dynasties,  all  the  shape- 
less ore  of  its  yet  unexplored  mines.  This  is  the  gift  of  Athens  to 
man.  Her  freedom  and  her  power  have  for  more  than  twenty 
centuries  been  annihilated  ;  her  people  have  degenerated  into 
feeble  slaves;  her  language  into  a  barbarous  jargon;  her  temples 
have  been  given  up  to  the  successive  depredations  of  Romans, 
Turks,  and  Scotchmen;  but  her  intellectual  empire  is  imperisha- 
ble. And  when  those  who  have  rivalled  her  greatness  shall  have 
shared  her  fate ;  when  civilization  and  knowledge  shall  have  fixed 


54  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

their  abode  in  distant  continents ;  when  the  sceptre  shall  have 
passed  away  from  England ;  when,  perhaps,  travellers  from  dis- 
tant regions  shall  in  vain  labor  to  decipher  on  some  mouldering 
pedestal  the  name  of  our  proudest  chief ;  shall  hear  savage  hymns 
chanted  to  some  misshapen  idol  over  the  ruined  dome  of  our 
proudest  temple ;  and  shall  see  a  single  naked  fisherman  wash  his 
nets  in  the  river  of  ten  thousand  masts, — her  influence  and  her 
glory  will  still  survive,  fresh  in  eternal  youth,  exempt  from  muta- 
bility and  decay,  immortal  as  the  intellectual  principle  from  which 
they  derived  their  origin,  and  over  w^hich  they  exercise  theii 
control.  On  the  Athenian   Orators, 


DICKENS.   1812-1870. 

Charles  Dickens,  one  of  the  greatest  novelists  of  all  time,  was 
born  in  1 81 2.  When  of  proper  age  he  began  to  study  law,  but 
abandoned  it,  and  became  a  reporter  for  a  London  newspaper. 
While  thus  employed  he  began  writing  "  Sketches  of  Life  and 
Character,"  which  were  afterwards  collected  as  Sketches  by  Boz. 
They  were  well  received,  and  thus  encouraged  he  went  on  pro- 
ducing novel  after  novel,  winning  fortune  and  fame,  until  1870, 
when  he  died. 

It  was  Dickens's  mission  to  portray  the  lives  of  the  poor  and 
lowly ;  to  delineate  their  wrongs  and  wretchedness  ;  to  show  that 
purity,  goodness,  and  true  nobility  may  dwell  in  the  hovel  as  well 
as  in  the  palace,  and  thus  to  preach  humanity  to  man.  For  this 
his  genius  was  admirably  fitted ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  estimate 
the  amount  of  good  his  writings  have  done,  the  number  of  tears 
they  have  wiped  away,  the  amount  of  innocent  and  healthy  amuse- 
ment they  have  given. 

Among  the  best  of  his  novels  (for  all  are  good,  though  in  dif- 
ferent degrees)  are — Pickwick  Papers,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  David 
Copperfield,  Dombey  and  Son,  Ouy  Mutual  Friend,  The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop,  Great  Expectations,  and  Christmas  Stories. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
There  is  no  substitute  for  thorough -going,  ardent,  sincere  earn- 
estness. 


VICTORIAN  A  GE.  55 


T  love  these  little  people ;  and  it  is  not  a  slight  thing  when  they, 
who  are  so  fresh  from  God,  love  us.   . 


When  death  strikes  down  the  innocent  and  young,  for  every 
fragile  form  from  which  he  sets  the  panting  spirit  free,  a  hundred 
virtues  rise,*  in  shapes  of  mercy,  charity,  and  love,  to  walk  the 
world  and  bless  it.  Of  every  tear  that  sorrowing  mortals  shed  on 
such  green  graves,  some  good  is  born,  some  gentler  nature  comes. 
In  the  destroyer's  steps,  there  spring  up  bright  creations  that  defy 
his  power,  and  his  dark  path  becomes  a  way  of  light  to  heaven. 


THACKERAY.  1811-1863. 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray,  another  great  novelist,  was 
born  in  i8ll.  He  received  a  good  education,  and  afterwards 
studied  painting  for  some  years,  intending  to  make  himself  an 
.artist.  He  did  become  an  artist,  and  a  great  one,  too,  but  not  in 
the  way  he  intended.  Instead  of  an  artist  of  the  pencil  he  became 
an  artist  of  the  pen. 

If  we  compare  Thackeray  and  Dickens,  it  is  impossible  to  say 
which  was  the  greater.  Probably  they  were  equally  great,  though 
in  different  ways.  Thackeray  had  the  wider  culture;  Dickens, 
the  greater  genius.  The  former  held  up  to  ridicule  the  follies  of 
the  higher  classes  of  society  ;  the  latter  reached  the  same  result 
by  describing  the  miseries  of  the  lower.  Thus  both  labored  for 
the  good  of  society  and  placed  themselves  among  the  benefactors 
of  the  race. 

Among  the  greatest  of  Thackeray's  novels  are —  Vanity  Fair, 
Fendennis,  Henry  Estno7td^  The  Virginians  (a  sequel  to  Esmond), 
and  The  Newcomes.  Besides  these  he  is  the  author  of  two  ad- 
mirable courses  of  lectures  on  The  Four  Georges  and  The  Eng- 
glish  Humorists,  which  contain  some  of  the  finest  criticism  in  the 
language. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

If  fun  is  good,  truth  is  better,  and  love  best  of  all. 


56  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 


Might  I  give  counsel  to  any  young  hearer,  I  would  say  to  him. 
Try  to  frequent  the  company  of  your  betters.  In  books  and  life, 
that  is  the  most  wholesome  society;  learn  to  admire  rightly;  the 
great  pleasure  of  life  is  that.  Note  what  great  men  admired ; 
they  admired  great  things  :  narrow  spirits  admire  basely,  and  wor- 
ship meanly.  English  Huinorists^  Lecture  IV. 


LORD  LYTTON.  1805-1873. 

Sir  Edward  George  Bulwer-Lytton  (formerly  Bulwer),  who  was 
born  in  1 805,  and  died  in  1873,  is  another  novelist  of  the  first  class. 
Indeed,  Dickens,  Thackeray,  and  Bulwer-Lytton  may  be  said  to 
form  the  great  triumvirate  of  Victorian  novelists,  legitimate  and 
worthy  successors  of  the  great  "  Wizard"*  of  the  preceding  age. 
Which  is  the  greatest  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  some  preferring  one, 
some  another.  Lord  Lytton  is  more  learned  and  metaphysical 
than  the  others,  and  seems  to  delight  in  the  region  of  the  magical 
and  supernatural,  as  in  Zanoni  and  A  Strange  Story.  Most  of 
his  characters  are  drawn  from  high  life,  with  which  he  was  most 
familiar,  and  he  particularly  excels  in  the  delineation  of  love. 

His  principal  works  are — Felham,  Eugene  Aram,  The  Last 
Days  of  Pompeii^  Rienzi,  The  Caxtons,  and  Kenelm  Chillingly — 
the  latter  published  since  his  death.  He  is  also  author  of  two 
excellent  dramas,  Richelieu  oxidi  The  Lady  of  Lyons,  and  a  num- 
ber of  poems  and  poetical  translations. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

There  is  no  policy  like  politeness ;  and  a  good  manner  is  the 
best  thing  in  the  world,  either  to  get  a  good  name  or  to  supply  the 
want  of  it. 

II. 

Reading  without  purpose  is  sauntering,  not  exercise.  More  is 
got  from  one  book  on  which  the  thought  settles  for  a. definite  end 
in  knowledge,  than  from  libraries  skimmed  over  by  a  wandering 
eye.  A  cottage  flower  gives  honey  to  the  bee, — a  king's  garden 
none  to  the  butterfly. 

*  Scott  is  often  called  "  The  Wizard  of  the  North." 


VICTORIAN  AGE.  57 

GEORGE  ELIOT.  1820- 


ffO^i^^.   ^ 


Mrs.  Marian  C.  Lewes  (formerly  Evans),  whose  literary  name 
is  "  George  Eliot,"  is  the  greatest  female  novelist  that  England 
has  produced,  the  greatest  probably  (unless  George  Sand  be  an 
exception)  that  ever  lived.  She  is  as  supreme  in  fiction  as  Mrs. 
Somerville  in  science,  and  Mrs.  Browning  in  poetry.  She  was 
born  in  1820,  and  is  the  wife  of  the  author  George  H.  Lewes. 

Her  principal  works  are — Ada?n  Bede,  The  Mill  on  the  Floss, 
Romola,  Felix  Holt  the  Radical,  Silas  Martier,  Middlemarch, 
and  Daniel  Deronda. 

Besides  these  she  has  published  The  Spanish  Gypsy  (a  drama), 
and  Jubal  and  other  Poetns,  but  her  poems,  though  good,  add 
nothing  to  her  great  reputation. 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 

Our  deeds  determine  us  as  much  as  we  determine  our  deeds. 

Adat?i  Bede. 

There  are  few  prophets  in  the  world,  few  sublimely  beautiful 
women,  few  heroes.  I  can't  afford  to  give  all  my  love  and 
reverence  to  such  rarities ;  1  want  a  great  deal  of  these  feelings 
for  my.  everyday  fellowmen,  especially  for  the  few  in  the  fore- 
ground of  the  great  multitude  whose  faces  I  know,  whose  hands 
I  touch,  for  whom  I  have  to  make  way  with  kindly  courtesy. 

Adam  Bede. 


SIR  WM.  HAMILTON.  1788-1856. 

Sir  William  Hamilton  was  born  in  1788,  educated  at  Oxford, 
afterwards  studied  law,  was  for  thirty -five  years  a  professor  in 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  died  in  1856.  He  was  the 
greatest  mental  philosopher  of  his  age,  probably  the  greatest  of  all 
time.  Not  that  he  was  a  greater  thinker  or  added  more  to  the 
science  of  mind  than  Aristotle  or  Locke  or  even  than  Reid,  of 
whom  he  was  a  disciple ;  but  that  he  knew  more,  possessing  as 
he  did  the  accumulated  learning  of  all  the  others,  increased  by 
the  results  of  his  own  reasoning.     And  great  as  was  his  command 


68  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

over  all  the  stores  of  learning,  ancient  and  modern,  his  mastery 
over  the  povk^er  of  expression  u^as  scarcely  less  remarkable.  His 
style  has  been  pronounced  "a  model  of  philosophical  writing." 

His  principal  w^ork^  are  his  Essays  from  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view, his  Edition  of  Reid's  Works,  and  his  Lectures. 

EXTRACT. 

As  concerns  the  quantity  of  what  is  to  be  read,  there  is  a  single 
rule, — Read  much,  but  not  many  works  [multum  non  multa). 


V,  DARWIN.  1809- 
Charles  Darwiii,  'JF.  R.  S.,  is  an  eminent  naturalist,  and  the 
chief  advocate,  if- not  the  author,  of  what  is  known  as  the  "  Dar- 
winian (or  evolution)  Theory."  His  principal  works  are — The 
Variation  of  Animals  and  Plants,  The  Origin  of  Species,  The 
Descent  of  Alan,  ancj  Expression  in  Man  and  Animals. 

EXTRACT. 

[The  following  extract  is  given,  partly  to  exhibit  the  author's  style,  and 
partly  to  show  how  coinplacentij'  he  accepts  the  result  of  his  own  theory.] 

There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  we  are  descended  from  bar- 
barians. .  .  .  [And]  he  who  has  seen  a  savage  in  his  native  land 
wrill  not  feel  much  shame,  if  forced  to  acknowledge  that  the. blood 
of  some  more  humble  creature  flows  in  his  veins.  For  my  own 
part,  I  would  as  soon  be  descended  from  that  heroic  little  monkey 
who  braved  his  dreaded  enemy  in  order  to  save  the  life  of  his 
keeper;  or  from  that  old  baboon  who,  descending  from  the  moun-  "* 
tains,  carried  away  in  triumph  his  young  comrade  from  a  crowd 
of  astonished  dogs, — as  from  a  savage  who  delights  to  torture  his 
enemies,  offers  up  bloody  sacrifices,  practises  infanticide  without 
remorse,  treats  his  wives  like  slaves,  knows  no  decency,  and  is 
haunted  by  the  grossest  superstitions. 


CARLYLE.   179s-   \%tl   ^J^^  >f. 


Thomas  Carlyle,  one  of  the  most  original  and  vigorous  writers 
of  the  age,  was  born  in  Scotland  in  1795,  and  was  educated  at  the 
University  of  Edinburgh.  He  is  almost  a  worshipper  of  power, 
whether  mental,  physical,  or  political ;  hence  his  chief  heroes  are 
Mohammed,  Cromwell,  Napoleon,  and  Frederick  the  Great.     He 


VICTORIAN  AGE.  59 

is  somewhat  eccentric,  both  in  thought  and  style,  having  been  in- 
fluenced in  both  these  respects  by  his  study  of  German  literature. 
His  greatest  works  are — Sartor  Resartus^  Hero  Worships  The 
French  RevolutioUy  Life  of  Frederick  the  Grtat,  and  several  vol- 
umes of  Essays. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Earnestness  alone  makes  life  eternity. 

II. 
Cast  forth  thy  act,  thy  word,  into  the  ever-living,  ever-working 
universe:  it  is  a  seed-grain   that  cannot  die;  unroticed  to-day,  it 
will  be  found  flourishing  as  a  banyan  grove — perhaps,  alas!  as  a 
hemlock  lorest — alter  a  thousand  years. 


y^RUSKlN.  1819-    • 

John  Ruskin  is  the  greatest  art-critic  of  his  time.  He. was  born 
in  1819,  was  educated  at  Oxford,  and  is  now  Professor  of  Art  in 
that  University.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  masters  of  prose  com- 
position. In  beauty  of  style  he  is  unequalled  by  any  aiuthor  of 
the  century  except  De  Quincey  and  Macaulay. 

His  most  celebrated  works  are  Modern  Painters^  Seven  Lampi 
of  Architecture^  and  Stones  of  Venice, 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 
I  believe  the  first  test  of  a  truly  great  man  is  his  humility. 

II. 
Every  great  man  is  always  being  helped  by  everybody,  for  his 
gift  is  to  get  good  out  of  all  things  and  all  persons. 
III. 

SUNRISE   IN   THE   ALPS. 

[We  give  the  following  extract,  though  it  is  long,  to  show  what  poetry  and 
sublimity  a  great  master  can  throw  into  a  single  sentence.  It  is  only  part  of 
,  a  description,  ail  of  which  is  equally  sublime.] 

Wait  yet  for  one  hour,  until  the  east  again  becomes  purple,  and 
the  heaving  mountains,  rolling  against  it  in  darkness,  like  waves 
of  a  wild  sea,  are  drowned  one  by  one  in  the  glory  of  its  burning; 
watch  the  white  glaciers  blaze  in  their  winding  paths  about  the 


60  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

mountains,  like  mighty  serpents  with  scales  of  fire ;  watch  the 
columnar  peaks  of  solitary  snow,  kindling  downwards  chasm  by 
chasm,  each  in  itself  a  new  morning — their  long  avalanches  cast 
down  in  keen  streams  brighter  than  the  lightning,  sending  each 
his  tribute  of  driven  snow,  like  altar-smoke,  up  to  heaven;  the 
rose-light  of  their  silent  domes  flushing  that  heaven  about  them, 
piercing  with  purer  light  through  its  purple  lines  of  lifted  cloud, 
casting  a  new  glory  on  every  wreath,  as  it  passes  by,  until  the 
whole  heaven,  one  scarlet  canopy,  is  interwoven  with  a  roof  of 
waving  flame  and  tossing  vault  beyond  vault,  as  with  the  drifted 
wmgs  of  many  companies  of  angels  :  and  then,  when  you  can  look 
no  more  for  gladness,  and  when  you  are  bowed  down  with  love 
and  fear  of  the  Maker  and  Doer  of  this,  tell  me  who  has  best 
delivered  this  His  message  unto  men ! 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

HISTOKICAL. 

George  Grote  (1794-1876),  author  of  History  of  Greece,  Plato  and  the 
Other  Companions  of  Socrates.  Grote's  History  of  Greece  is  the  best  ever 
published. 

CoNNOP  Thirlwall  (1797-1876),  author  of  History  of  Greece. 

SiK  Archibald  Alison  (i 792-1867),  author  of  History  of  Europe  iiova.  the 
Commencement  of  the  French  Revolution  to  the  Accession  of  Napoleon,  18 
vols.;  and  Life  of  Marlborough. 

f  James  Anthony  Froudk  (1818-  ),  author  of  History  of  England  from 

the  Fall  of  Wolsey  to  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  12  vols.;  Short  Studies  on  Great 
Subjects  ;  History  of  Ireland. 

Henry  Hart  Milman  (1791-1868),  author  of  History  of  Christianity,  His- 
tory of  Latin  Christianity,  etc. 

/"  Rev.  Charles  Merivale  (1808-1874),  author  of  History  of  the  Romans, 
Conversion  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Conversion  of  the  Northern  Nations. 
{    Arthur  Helps  (1818-1875),  author  of  Friends  in  Council,  Companions  of 
My  Solitude,  Social  Pressure,  Conquerors  of  the  New  World,  etc. 
/  John  Forster  (1812-1876),  author  of  Essays,  Life  of  Landor,  Lives  of  the 
Statesmen  of  the  Commonwealth,  Life  of  Goldsmith,  Life  of  Dickens,  etc, 
/  Miss  Agnes  Strickland  ( 1 806-        ),  author  of  Queens  of  England,  Queens 
of  Scotland,  Bachelor  Kings  of  England.    Assisted  by  her  sister  Elizabeth. 

FICTITIOUS. 

/  Rt,  Hon.  Benjamin  Disraeli  (1805-  ),  a  distinguished  statesman,  at 
present  (1876)  Premier  of  England;  author  of  Vivian  Grey,  The  Young  Duke, 
Henrietta  Temple,  Contarini  Fleming,  Coningsby,  Sibyl,  Lothair,  and  sev- 
eral other  novels  ;  also  Life  of  Lord  Bentinck.     Now  Earl  of  Beaconsfield. 

/  Anthony  Trollope  (1815-  ),  author  of  La  Vendee,  Orley  Farm,  Bar- 
chester  Towers,  Framley  Parsonage,  The  Bertrams,  Ralph  the  Heir,  etc.; 


V- 


^ 


VICTORIAN  AGE.  61 

also  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main,  Travels  in  North  America, 
I'ravels  in  Australia,  etc.  (Mrs.  Trollope,  his  mother,  was  also  a  novelist ; 
so  is  his  brother,  T.  Adolphus  Trollope.) 

^  Charles  Reade  (1814-  ),  a  novelist  of  the  first  class,  author  of  Peg 
Woffington,  Christie  Johnstone,  Never  Too  Late  to  Mend,  White  Lies,  Grif- 
fith Gaunt,  Put  Yourself  in  His  Place,  etc. 

Rev.  Charles  Kingsley  (1819-1875),  author  of  Alton  Locke,  Westward 
Ho,  Yeast,  Hypatia,  etc. 

Charles  LEVER(i8o6-i872),author  of  Harry  Lorrequer,  Charles  O'Malley, 
Jack  Hinton,  etc.     Unequalled  in  his  delineations  of  Irish  life  and  character. 

Samuel  Lover  (i 797-1868),  Irish, author  of  Rory  O'More,  Handy  Andy, 
novels  ;  and  Angels  Whisper,  Molly  Bawn,  and  other  popular  songs, 

Samuel  Warren,  LL.D.  (1807-  ),  author  of  Ten  Thousand  a  Year  (a 
very  amusing  novel),  and  some  law  treatises. 

G.  P.  R.  James  (1801-1860),  author  of  Edward  the  Black  Prince,  Riche- 
lieu, and  many  other  novels;  also  several  biographical  works. 

Charlotte  Bronte  (1816-1855),  author  of  Jane  Eyre,  Shirley,  and  Vil- 
lette,  three  excellent  novels. 

/   Wilkie  Collins  (1824-        ),  author  of  Life  of  William  Collins  (his  father); 
also  of  The  Dead  Secret,  No  Name,  Woman  in  White,  and  other  novels. 
/  Mrs.  Craik,  formerly  Dinah  Maria  Mulock  (1826-        ),  author  of  John  Hal- 
ifa3f,Gentleman ;  The  Ogilvies;  The  Woman's  Kingdom  ;  A  Brave  Lady,  and 
various  other  novels. 

,  Thomas  Hughes  (1823-  ),  author  pf  School  Days  at  Rugby,  Tom  Brown 
at  Oxford;  also  Life  of  King  Alfred,  and  Memorials  of  a  Brother. 

Gerald  Griffin  (1803-1840),  an  Irish  novelist  and  poet  of  rare  genius, 
author  of  Holland  Tide,  The  Collegians,  and  other  tales  ;  also  of  Gille 
Machree  and  other  popular  poems. 

Edmund  Yates,  G.  A.  Sala,  George  Macdonald,  Mrs.  Wood,  Miss 
YoNGE,  and  many  others,  have  also  written  novels  of  great  popularity.  ^ 

scientific. 
'^  John    Stuart   Mill  (1806-1873),  a  profound  thinker  and  great    writer; 
author  of  System  of  Logic,  Political  Economy,  Essay  on  Liberty,  etc. 

Henry  Thomas  Buckle  (1822-1862),  author  of  History  ot  Civilization. 

Herbert  Spencer  (1820-  ),  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Darwinian  philos- 
ophers, author  of  Social  Statics,  Principles  of  Psychology,  Education,  etc. 

Sir  David  Brewster  (1781-1868),  author  of  Natural  Magic,  More  Worlds 
than  One,  Lives  of  Newton,  Galileo,  Kepler,  etc. 

''  Sir  Charles  Lyell  (i  797-1875),  author  of  Elements  of  Geology,  Travels  in 
North  America,  Antiquity  of  Man,  etc. 

'  Hugh  Miller  (1802-1856),  self-educated  geologist,  author  of  Old  Red 
Sandstone,  Footprints  of  the  Creator,  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,  My  Schools 
and  Schoolmasters,  etc. 

Mrs.  Mary  Somerville  (1780-1872),  the  most  learned  woman  of  her  age, 
author  of  Connection  of  the  Physical  Sciences,  Physical  Geography,  etc. 


62  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE. 

Wm.  Whewell,  D.  D.  (1795-1866),  a  writer  of  wonderful  attainments, 
author  of  History  of  the  Inductive  Sciences,  Philosophy  of  the  Inductive 
Sciences,  The  Plurality  of  Worlds,  etc. 

/  John  Tyndall  (1820-  ),  author  of  Heat  a  Mode  of  Motion,  On  Sound, 
Fragments  of  Science,  Hours  of  Exercise,  etc. 

Thos.  Henry  Huxley,  F.  R.  S.  (1825-  ),  author  of  Man's  Place  in  Na- 
ture, Comparative  Anatomy,  Protoplasm,  Lay  Sermons,  etc. 

CRITICAL   AND    MISCELLANEOUS. 

^     Prof.  Max  MUller  (1823-        ),  author  of  Science  of  Language,  2   vols.; 

Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  4  vols. 
/     Rt,  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Gladstone  (1809-        ),  the  leading  Liberal  statesman 
of  England,  author  of  Juventus  Mundi,  Homeric  Studies,  etc. 
/'     Earl  of  Derby,  E.  G.  S.  Stanley  (i 799-1869),  an  English  statesman,  and 
author  of  a  fine  Translation  of  Homer. 

Mrs.  Anna  Jameson  (r797-i86o),  the  ablest  female  prosist  of  the  age, 
author  of  Characteristics  of  Women,  Poetry  of  Sacred  and  Legendary  Art,  etc 

theological. 

Dean  Stanley  (1815-  ),  author  of  Life  of  Arnold,  Commentary  on 
Corinthians,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  etc. 

/5  Richard  Whately,  D.  D.  (1787-T863),  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  author  of 
Rhetoric,  Logic,  Political  Economy,  New  Testament  Difficulties,  etc. 
*,  R.  C.  Trench,  D.  D.  (1807-  ),  Abp.  of  Dublin,  author  of  Notes  on  the 
Parables,  Notes  on  the  Miracles,  Lessons  on  the  Proverbs,  On  the  Study  of 
Words,  English  Past  and  Present,  Poems,  etc. 
•  Henry  Alford,  D.  D.  (1810-1871),  Dean  of  Canterbury,  author  of  Edition 
Df  New  Testament,  The  Queen's  English,  Poems,  etc. 

«■  Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon  (1834-  ),  the  most  popular  preacher  of  England, 
author  of  several  volumes  of  sermons.  Morning  by  Morning,  Evening  by 
Evening,  John  Ploughman's  Talks,  etc.,  etc. 

His  Eminence  Nicholas  Wiseman,  S.  T.  D.  (1802-1865),  Cardinal  and 
Abp.  of  Westminster,  one  of  the  greatest  scholars  and  writers  of  his  age; 
author  of  many  doctrinal  works,  also  of  a  large  number  of  lectures  on  Religion 
and  Science,  Self-Culture,  Literature,  Art,  and  other  popular  subjects. 

John  Henry  Newman,  D,  D.  (1801-  ),  a  writer  of  rare  excellence, 
author  of  Loss  and  Gain  (a  religious  novel).  Apologia  pro  Vita  Sua,  etc. 

Kenelm  H.  Digby  (1800-  ),  author  of  Mores  CathoUci,  The  Lover's 
Seat,  The  Children's  Bower,  Evenings  on  the  Thames,  Poems,  etc, 

(Many  eminent  theologians  are  omitted  from  this  list  for  the  reason  stated 
at  the  bottom  of  page  iv.) 


American  Contemporaries. 
Cooper,  Irving,  Prescott,  Bancroft,  Ticknor,  Motley,  Everett,  Webster,  etc. 


PART  II. 
THE  LITERATURE  OF  AMERICA. 


INTRODUCTION. 

ORIGIN. — American  Literature  may  be  said  to  have  begun  in 
1640,  the  year  in  which  the  first  book  was  printed  in  this 
country. 

This  was  the  Bay  Psalm  Book.  Most  of  the  books  produced  in  America 
before  this  time  may  be  regarded  as  English  books,  as  they  were  not  only 
printed  in  England,  but  were  also  intended  mainly  for  English  circulation. 

Periods. — American  Literature  is  divided,  in  this  work,  into 
three  Periods : — 

I.  The  Colonial  Age,  1640- 1760. 

II.  The  Revolutionary  Age,  1 760-1830. 

III.  The   National  Age,  1830-1875. 


PERIOD  L— THE  COLONIAL  AGE. 
I 640-1 760. 

[Embracing,  in  English  history,  the  last  nine  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I., 
the  Common  wealth  and  Prutectorate,  and  the  reigns  of  Charles  II.,  James  II., 
William  and  Mary,  Queen  Anne,  George  I.,  and  George  II.] 

nniilS  age  was  unfavorable  to  literary  production.  Y.  ,vas  an 
-*-  age  of  fightmg  rather  than  writing.  The  colonists,  engaged 
m  a  constant  struggle  for  existence,  had  but  little  time  to  devote 
to  literary  pursuits ;  hence  they  left  us  but  few  works  of  perma- 
nent and  universal  interest. 

Most  of  the  literature  of  this  age  is  theological.     This  is  owing 
(63) 


64  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

to  two  causes  ;  I .  That  learning  was  mostly  confined  to  the  clergy ; 
and  2.  That  the  mingling  of  various  sects,  in  a  time  of  strong  relig- 
ious feeling,  naturally  provoked  much  theological  discussion. 

Its  chief  literary  representatives  are  Cotton  Mather  and  Jona- 
than Edwards. 


^  COTTON  MATHER.    1663-1728. 

Rev.  Cotton  Mather  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and  remarka- 
ble men  that  New  England  has  ever  produced.  He  was  born  in 
1663,  graduated  at  Harvard  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  taught  for  some 
years,  was  ordained  at  twenty-one,  and  from  that  time  till  his 
death,  in  1728,  devoted  himself  with  unflagging  zeal  to  preaching 
and  authorship.  Like  many  other  great  men  of  that  day,  he  was 
a  firm  believer  in  witchcraft,  and  assisted  in  the  persecution  of  the 
poor  wretches  accused  of  it ;  but  this  was  an  error  of  the  head, 
not  of  the  heart ;  and  he  was,  take  him  for  all  and  all,  one  of  the 
greatest  and  best  men  of  his  age. 

His  principal  work  is  a  history  entitled  Magnalia  Christi 
Americana^  from  which  we  derive  much  of  our  knowledge  of 
those  times.  The  most  celebrated  of  his  other  works  are  Memor- 
able Providences  Relating  to  Witchcrafty  and  The  Wonders  of 
the  Invisible  World,  which  is  an   account  of  several  witch  trials. 

EXTRACT. 

You  are  young  and  have  the  world  before  you ;  stoop  as  you 
go  through  it,  and  you  will  miss  many  a  hard  thump."^ 


EDWARDS.  1 703-1 758. 
Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  an  eloquent  preacher  and  profound 
metaphysician,  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1703,  and  died  at 
Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  1758.  He  was  for  two  years  a  tutor  in  Yale 
College,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  President  of  the  College 
of  New  Jersey,  but  most  of  .his  life  was  spent  in  preaching.     His 

*  This  advice  was  given  to  Benjamin  Franklin  after  he  had  bumped  his 
head  against  a  beam  that  extended  across  a  passage-way  in  Mather's  house. 


REVOLUTIONARY  AGE,  65 

great  work,  An  Inquiry  into  the  Freedom  of  the  Willi  is  one  of 
the  profoundest  metaphysical  works  ever  written,  and  insures  the 
author  a  permanent  place  among  the  great  thinkers  of  the  world. 
Said  Robert  Hall,  "  I  consider  Jonathan  Edwards  the  greatest  of 
the  sons  of  men." 

EXTRACT. 

Surely  there  is  something  in  the  unruffled  calm  of  nature  that 
overawes  our  little  anxieties  and  doubts :  the  sight  of  the  deep- 
blue  sky  and  th^e  clustering  stars  above  seems  to  impart  a  quiet  to 
the  mind. 


OTHER  AUTHORS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

John  Eliot  (1604-1690),  "  the  apostle  to  the  Indians,"  who  translated  the 
Bible  into  an  Indian  dialect.     This  was  the  first  Bible  printed  in  America. 

Mrs.  Ann  Braustreet  (1612-1672),  wife  of  Gov.  Bradstreet,  the  first 
American  poetess,  author  of  The  Four  Elements, 

Rev.  Increase  Mather  (1635-1723),  father  of  Cotton  Mather,  and  author  of 
Remarkable  Providences,  etc.  He  was  a  very  learned  man,  and  was  for 
some  years  President  of  Harvard  College. 

John  Woolman  (1720-1773),  a  noted  Quaker  preacher.  His  principal 
work  is  his  Journal,  which  has  been  edited  by  the  poet  Whittier. 


English  Contemporaries. 
*  This  age  is  nearly  coextensive  with  the  ages   of  Milton,   Dryden,  and 
Pope.     (See  English  Literature,  pp.  17,  20,  21.) 


f      PERIOD  II REVOLUTIONARY  AGE. 

1 760-1830. 

(Embracing,  in  English  history,  the  reigns  of  George  III.  and  George  IV.) 

IN  this  age  war:  fought,  with  tongue  and  pen  and  sword,  the  great 
battle  of  political  independence.  During  all  this  period,  before 
and  during  and  after  the  Revolution,  till  our  liberties  were  fully 
secured  and  established,  the  chief  subjects  of  thought  and  discus- 
sion were  the  rights  of  man  and  the  principles  of  government.  As 
a  consequence,  the  literature  of  the  age,  both  in  prose  and  poetry, 
is  almost  exclusively  of  a  political  and  patriotic  character. 


66  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

The  authors  of  this  age  will  be  divided  into  two  classes : — 

I.  The  Poets,  represented  by  Drake  and  Halleck. 

II.  The  Prose  Writers,  represented  by  Franklin,  Jefferson, 
Hamilton,  Dwight,  and  Audubon. 


I.  Poets  of  the  Revolutionary  Age. 


DRAKE.  1795-1820. 

Joseph  Rodman  Drake  was  a  young  poet  of  brilliant  promise, 
who  died  in  1820,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-five.  He  was  the 
author  of  two  celebrated  poems.  The  American  Flag  and  The 
Culprit  Fay.  The  latter,  which  was  written  on  a  wager,  in  three 
days,  is  a  fairy  tale,  the  scene  of  which  is  laid  on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson. 

EXTRACT. 

"When  Freedom,  from  her  mountain  height, 

Unfurled  her  standard  to  .the  air, 
She  tore  the  azure  robe  of  night, 

And  set  the  stars  of  glory  there ! 
She  mingled  with  its  gorgeous  dyes 
The  milky  baldrick  of  the  skies. 
And  striped  its  pure  celestial  white 
With  streakings  of  the  morning  light; 
Then,  from  his  mansion  in  the  sun, 
She  called  her  eagle-bearer  down, 
And  gave  into  his  mighty  hand 
The  symbol  of  her  chosen  land. 

The  American  Flag. 

Note. — The  last  four  lines  of  this  poem,  as  written  by  Drake,  were  as  fol- 
lows : — 

*'And  fixed  as  yonder  orb  divine 

That  saw  thy  bannered  blaze  unfurled. 
Shall  thy  proud  stars  resplendent  shine, 
The  guard  and  glory  of  the  world." 

These  were  rejected,  and  the  following,  by  Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  which  are 
inferior  to  them,  both  in  poetic  beauty  and  clearness,  were  substituted: — 
*'  Forever  float  that  standard  sheet ! 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  Freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 
And  Freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us?" 


REVOLUTIONARY  AGE,  67 

HALLECK.  17^5-1867. 

Fitz-Greene  Halleck,  though  he  lived  till  a  recent  date,  won  all 
his  literary  celebrity  before  1830,  and  therefore  belongs  in  this  age. 
He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Drake's,  and  wrote  some  beautiful 
lines  on  his  death.  He  was  for  many  years  confidential  adviser 
to  John  Jacob  Astor,  and  died  in  New  York  in  1867. 

Halleck's  poems  are  few,  but  of  great  excellence — clear,  manly,  ■ 
and  spirited.     His  principal  poem,  Marco  Bozzaris,  is  one  of  the 
very  finest  heroic  odes  in  the  English  language. 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 
Green  be  the  turf  above  thee. 

Friend  of  my  better  days  ! 
None  knew  thee  but  to  love  thee. 
None  named  thee  but  to  praise. 

Lines  oh  the  Death  of  Drake, 


For  thou  art  Freedom's  now,  and  Fame's, 
One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names. 
That  were  not  born  to  die. 

Marco  Bozzaris, 


OTHER  POETS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

Philip  Freneau  (1752-1832),  author  of  many  political  and  miscellaneous 
poems. 

\   Judge  Francis  Hopkinson  (1737-1791),  author  of  a  once  celebrated  hu- 
morous poem,  The  Battle  of  the  Kegs. 
\-    Judge  Joseph  Hopkinson  (1770-1842),  son  of  the  preceding,  and  author  of 
Hail  Columbia. 

Robert  Treat  Paine  (1773-1811),  author  of  the  poem  Adams  and  Liberty. 
y  Francis  Scott  Key  (1779-1843),  author  of  The  Star-Spangled  Banner. 

Clement  C.  Moore  (i 779-1 863),   author  of  A  Visit  from  St.   Nicholas 
('Twas  the  night  before  Christmas,"  etc.);  also  of  a  Hebrew  and  Greek  Lexi- 
con, etc. 
■     Samuel  WooDWORTH  (1785-1842),  author  of  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket. 

Mrs.  Maria  Brooks  (1795-1845),  surnamed  by  Southey  "Maria  del  Occi- 
dente"  (Maria  of  the  West),  author  of  Zophiel  and  other  poems. 


5  COMMON-SCHOOL   LITERATURE, 

II.  Prose  Writers  of  the  Revolutionary  Age. 


FRANKLIN.   1 706-1 790. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  a  self-made 
man  that  history  affords,  was  born  in  Boston  in  1706.  Beginning 
life  as  a  tallow-chandler's  boy,  he  rose  step  by  step  until  he  be- 
came one  of  the  greatest  philosophers  and  statesmen  of  his  age ; 
and,  having  filled  many  high  offices  of  profit  and  trust,  and  con- 
tributed powerfully  to  the  establishment  of  our  government  and 
the  improvement  of  mankind,  he  died  in  Philadelphia,  full  of 
honors  as  of  years,  in  1790. 

His  works  fill  several  large  volumes.  They  consist  of  his  Au- 
tobiography, his  moral,  political,  and  philosophical  Essays,  and 
his  Cor7^espondence.  Some  of  his  short  pieces,  such  as  The  Whis- 
tle, The  Grindstone,  and  the  Dialogue  with  the  Gout,  have  found 
their  way  into  a  large  number  of  school  readers ;  and  his  wise 
sayings  known  as  Poor  Richard^ s  Maxims,  are  as  familiar  as  the 
Proverbs  of  Solomon. 

extracts. 
I. 
God  helps  them  that  help  themselves. 


If  you  would  not  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  you  are  dead,  either 
write  things  worth  reading  or  do  things  worth  writing. 


If  you  would  learn  the  value  of  money,  go  and  try  to  borrow 
some,  for  he  that  goes  a-borrowing  goes  a-sorrowing. 


There  are  two  ways  of  being  happy, — we  may  either  diminish 
our  wants  or  increase  our  means  :  either  will  do — the  result  is  the 


Pride  is  as  loud  a  beggar  as  Want,  and  a  great  deal  more  saucy. 
When  you  have  bought  one  fine  thing,  you  must  buy  ten  more, 
that  your  appearance  may  be  all  of  a  piece ;  but  it  is  easier  to  sup- 
"\  press  the  first  desire  than  to  satisfy  all  that  follow  it. 


[/  REVOLUTIONARY  AGE.  69 

V"  JEFFERSON.    1743-1826. 

Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  third  President  of  the  United 
States,  was  a  fine  scholar,  a  wise  statesman,  and  a  good  and  great 
man.  He  was  born  in  1743,  and  died  on  July  4,  1826* — the  fif- 
tieth anniversary  of  American  independence. 

Jefferson  is  the  author  of  Notes  on  Virginia  and  other  valuable 
works ;  but  his  greatest  work  is  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Of  all  our  great  men,  he  is  the  truest  representative  of  republican 
ideas,  and  he  probably  did  more  than  any  other  to  shape  the  des- 
tinies of  our  country. 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 
We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all  men  are  crea- 
ted  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
unalienable  rights;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness. 

II. — A  DECALOGUE. 

1.  Never  put  off  till  to-morrow  what  you  can  do  to-day. 

2.  Never  trouble  another  for  what  you  can  do  yourself. 

3.  Never  spend  your  money  before  you  have  it. 

4.  Never  buy  what  you  do  not  want,  because  it  is  cheap;  it 
will  be  dear  to  you. 

5.  Pride  costs  us  more  than  hunger,  thirst,  and  cold. 

6.  We  never  repent  of  having  eaten  too  little. 

7.  Nothing  is  troublesome  that  we  do  willingly. 

8.  How  much  pain  have  cost  us  the  evils  that  have  never  hap- 
pened ! 

9.  Take  things  always  by  the  smooth  handle. 

10.  When  angry,  count  ten  before  you  speak;  if  very  angr>',  a 
hundred. 


A  HAMILTON.  1 757-1804. 

Alexander  Hamilton,  who  was  killed  in  a  duel  by  Aaron  Burr, 

in  1804,  was  distinguished  as  a  soldier,  a  statesman,  and  a  writer. 

He  was  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Washington,  and  to  him 

is  due  the  honor  of  bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  and  establishing 

*  By  a  wonderful  coincidence,  John  Adams,  another  of  the  great  founders 
of  our  nation,  died  on  the  same  day. 


70  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

the  finances  of  the  country  upon  a  firm  basis.  His  fame  as  a 
writer  rests  chiefly  upon  his  contributions  to  The  Ftderalisty  in 
which  are  expounded  the  principles  of  the  Constitution. 

EXTRACT. 

The  native  brilliancy  of  the  diamond  needs  not  the  polish  of 
art ;  the  conspicuous  features  of  preeminent  merit  need  not  the 
coloring  pencil  of  imagination,  nor  the  florid  decorations  of 
rhetoric.  Eulogium  on  Gen.  Greene, 


DWIGHT.  1752-1817. 
Dr.  Timothy  Dwight,  one  of  the  most  distinguished  presidents 
of  Yale  College,  was  also  distinguished  as  an  author.  In  prose  his 
principal  work  is  Theology  Explained  and  Defended.  In  poetry 
his  best  works  are  Columbia^  Greenfield  Hill;  and  some  versions 
of  the  Psalms,  among  which  the  most  popular  is  that  beginning, — 

*' I  love  thy  kingdom,  Lord, 
The  house  of  thy  abode, 
The  church  our  bless'd  Redeemer  saved 
With  his  own  precious  blood." 

EXTRACT. 

Columbia,  Columbia,  to  glory  arise. 

The  queen  of  the  world  and  the  child  of  the  skies! 

Thy  genius  commands  thee ;  with  rapture  behold 

While  ages  on  ages  thy  splendors  unfold. 

Thy  reign  is  the  last,  and  the  noblest  of  time  ; 

Most  fruitful  thy  soil,  most  inviting  thy  clime  ; 

Let  the  crimes  of  the  East  ne'er  encrimson  thy  name, 

Be  freedom  and  science  and  virtue  thy  fame. 

Columbia. 


I  AUDUBON.  1780-1851. 

^  John  James  Audubon  is  celebrated  in  literature  for  his  great 
work  entitled  The  Birds  of  America^  in  four  volumes,  folio, 
magnificently  illustrated  by  four  hundred  and  thirty-five  colored 
plates,  the  whole  costing  originally  one  thousand  dollars  a  copy. 
He  and  his  sons  subsequently  published  a  work  entitled  Quadru- 
peds of  America.     His  ornithology  is  celebrated  no  less  for  the 


REVOLUTIONARY  AGE,  71 

truth  and  beauty  of  its  descriptions  than  for  the  excellence  of  its 

illustrations. 

EXTRACT. 

Where  is  the  person  who,  on  observing  this  glittermg  fragment 
of  the  rainbow y"^  would  not  pause,  admire,  and  instantly  turn  his 
mind  with  reverence  towards  thie  Almighty  Creator,  the  wonders 
of  whose  hand  we  at  every  step  discover,  and  of  whose  sublime 
conceptions  we  everywhere  observe  the  manifestations  in  his  admi- 
rable system  of  creation  ? 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

John  Adams  (1735-1826),  second  President  of  the  United  States,  author  of 
many  political  papers.  His  Letters  to  his  Wife  are  the  most  popular  of  his 
writings. 

•  James  Madison  C  1751-1836)  fourth  President  of  the  United  States,  cele- 
brated for  his  papers  in  The  Federalist,  etc. 

John  Witherspoon,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  (1722-1794),  President  of  Princeton 
College,  signer  of  the  Declaration,  and  a  prolific  and  able  writer  on  various 
subjects. 

Wm.  Ellery  Channing,  D.  D.  (i 780-1842),  an  eloquent  preacher  and 
refined  writer,  author  of  Evidences  of  Christianity,  Self-Culture,  Sermons,  etc. 

Dr.  David  Ramsay  (1749-1815),  born  in  Lancaster  Co.,  Pa.,  but  most  of 
his  life  a  resident  of  South  Carolina.  He  wrote  History  of  South  Carolina, 
History  of  the  United  States,  Universal  History,  Life  of  Washington,  etc. 

*  Washington  Allston  (1779-1843),  artist,  poet  and  prosist ;  author  of  The 
Sylphs  of  the  Seasons,  Romance  of  Monaldi,  Lectures  on  Art,  etc. 

Wm.  Wirt  (1772-1834),  a  great  lawyer,  and  author  of  The  British  Spy  and 
Life  of  Patrick  Henry. 

Alexander  Wilson  (1766-1813),  a  great  ornithologist,  but  little  inferior  to 
Audubon. 

Judge  Kent  (1763-1847),  author  of  Commentaries  on  American  Law. 
'  Judge  Story  (1779-1845),  author  of  a  Commentarj'  on  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  and  various  other  legal  treatises. 
Chief  Justice  Marshall  (1755-1835),  author  of  a  Life  of  Washington. 


English  Contemporaries. 
This  age  in  American  Literature  is  nearly  co-extensive  with  the  ages  of 
Johnson  and  Scott,  in  English  Literature.     (See  pages  25,  32.) 

*The  humming-bird. 


72  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

PERIOD  III— NATIONAL  AGE. 

1830-1875. 

(Embracing,  in  English  history,  the  reigns  of  Wm.  IV.  and  Victoria.) 
E  have  called  this  period  "  The  National    Age,"  because 


w 


now  for  the  first  time  our  literature  began  to  assume  a 
national  importance  and  to  show  signs  of  a  distinct  national  life. 
In  the  preceding  ages  it  had  been,  apart  from  works  of  local  and 
temporary  interest,  insignificant  in  amount  and  imitative  in  char- 
acter ;  but  with  the  advent  of  Cooper,  Irving,  Bryant,  and  Em- 
erson, it  began  to  challenge  the  attention  of  the  world,  and  to 
show  the  results  of  American  thought  and  culture.  There  still 
remained,  however,  the  diffidence  of  youth,  and  a  sort  of  intel- 
lectual dependence  on  the  mother  country;  and  it  required  the 
rude  shock  of  our  civil  war  and  the  revulsion  of  feeling  caused  by 
the  unfriendly  attitude  of  England,  to  teach  us  that  manly  self- 
reliance  which  is  essential  to  great  achievement,  in  individuals 
or  nations.  The  guns  of  Sumter  were  the  signal,  not  only  for 
the  social  emancipation  of  three  million  slaves,  but  also  for  the 
intellectual  emancipation  of  thirty  millions  of  freemen ;  and  the 
great  Civil  War  will  undoubtedly  mark  the  beginning  of  a  new 
literary  era.  Already  new  forces  are  at  work  and  new  tendencies 
developing,  as  in  the  dialect  poems  of  Harte  and  Hay ;  but  what 
will  be  the  final  result  cannot  yet  be  determined. 

The  authors  of  this  period,  being  numerous,  will  be  divided 
into  two  classes  : — 

I.  The  Poets,  represented  by  Biyant,  Longfellow,  Whittier, 
Lowell,  Holmes, \Poe,  Saxe,  Read,  Boker,  Taylor, 'Alice  Cary, 
Aldrich,  Stedman,  Holland,  Harte,\&nd  Miller. 

II.  The  Prose  Writers,  represented  by  Irving,  Prescott, 
Bancroft,  Motley,  Cooper,|  Hawthorne,  Stowe,  Everett,  Webster, 
Agassiz,  I  Emerson,  Whipple,  White,  Bishop  England,  Parker, 
Beecher,  and  Addison  Alexander. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  7$ 

I.  Poets  of  the  National  Age. 


BRYANT.  1794-  )  ^  7  ?  >  '  '^ih^ 

William  CiiUen  Bryant,  the  oldest  and  in  some  respects  the  best 
of  living  x\merican  poets,  was  born  at  Cummington,  Mass.,  in 
1794.  After  receiving  a  thorough  education  and  devoting  himself 
for  some  years  to  the  study  and  practice  of  law,  he  connected 
himself,  in  1826,  with  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  of  which  he 
is  now  chief  editor  and  proprietor.  He  lives  at  Roslyn,  Long 
Island.  \/ 

Among  his  finest  poems  are  the  following :  Thanatopsis,  Death  x 
of  the  Flozvers,  Forest  Hymn,  Gi^een  River ^  The  Evening  Wind. 
Song  of  the  Stars,  Song  of  the  Sower,  The  Planting  of  the- 
Appletree,  Waiting  at  the  Gate,  and  The  Flood  of  Years.  The 
first  of  these  was  written  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  the  last  at  the  age 
of  eighty-two.  These  two  points  mark  the  extremes  of  a  literary 
career  remarkable  no  less  for  its  brilliancy  than  its  extent. 

Besides  his  original  poems,  he  has  published  an  excellent  Trans- 
lation of  Homer,  and  several  books  of  travel. 

Bryant  may  appropriately  be  called  the  American  Wordsworth^ 
being  characterized  by  the  same  minute  and  reverent  observation, 
of  nature,  and  the  same  deep  religious  feeling,  that  appear  in  the 
works  of  that  great  poet ;  but  in  classic  dignity  of  style  and  purity 
of  diction  he  is  Wordsworth's  superior. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Truth,  crushed  to  earth,  shall  rise  again; 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers; 
But  Error,  wounded,  writhes  in  pain. 

And  dies  amid  his  worshippers.  The  Battlefeld'.r 

II. 
The  groves  were  God's  first  temples.     Ere  man  learned 
To  hew  the  shaft  and  lay  the  architrave, 
And  spread  the  roof  above  them ;  ere  he  framed 
The  lofty  vault,  to  gather  and  roll  back 


COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

The  sound  of  anthems  ;  in  the  darkling  wood, 

Amid  the  cool  and  silence,  he  knelt  down, 

And  offered  to  the  Mightiest  solemn  thanks 

And  supplication.  Forest  Hymn. 

III. 
Spirit  that  breathest  through  my  lattice,  thou 

That  cool'st  the  twilight  of  the  sultry  day, 
Gratefully  flows  thy  freshness  round  my  brow  ; 

Thou  hast  been  out  upon  the  deep  at  play. 
Riding  all  day  the  wild  blue  waves  till  now, 

Roughening  their  crests,  and  scattering  high  their  spray. 
And  swelling  the  white  sail.     I  welcome  thee 
To  the  scorched  land,  thou  wanderer  of  the  sea. 

The  Evening  Wind 

IV. 

So  live  that,  when  thy  summons  comes  to  join 
The  innumerable  caravan  that  moves 
To  that  mysterious  realm  where  each  shall  take 
His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, — 
Thou  go,  not  like  the  quarry-slave  at  night. 
Scourged  to  his  dungeon,  but  sustained  and  soothed 
By  an  unfaltering  trust,  approach  thy  grave 
Like  one  M'ho  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 

Thanatopsis. 


LONGFELLOW.  1807-f  ^  %  'k^  V^'^^^^i^^  '^ 


Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  the  most  popular  of  living  poets, 
was  born  at  Portland,  Maine,  in  1807.  He  graduated  at  Bowdoin 
College  in  the  class  of  1825,  and  afterwards,  at  various  times, 
further  enriched  his  mind  by  European  study  and  travel.  For 
twenty -five  years  (1829  to  1854)  he  filled  a  professorship  in  col- 
lege, six  years  in  Bowdoin,  and  nineteen  years  in  Harvard. 

He  lives  at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  an  old  house  once  occupied 
by  General  Washington  as  his  headquarters.  To  this  fact  he  al- 
ludes in  his  poem,  To  a  Child,  in  which  he  says, — 

"  Once,  ah,  once  within  these  wallsj^ 
One  whom  memory  oft  recalls. 
The  father  of  his  country  dwelt." 

Prof.   Longfellow   has   been   twice  married.      His    first    wife 


NATIONAL  AGE.  75 

died  at  Rotterdam,  Holland,  in  1 835  ;  his  second  wife  was  burned 
to  death  in  1861,  her  clothes  having  accidentally  taken  fire  while 
playing  with  the  children. 

The  following  are  some  of  Mr.  Longfellow's  most  popular 
poems  :  Evangeline,  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn,  Courtship  of  Miles 
Standish,  The  Building  of  the  Ship,  The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs, 
Santa  Filomena,  The  Bridge,  The  Builders,  Resignation,  The 
Day  is  Done,  The  Hanging  of  ihe  Crane,  and  Morituri  Saluta- 
mus. 

He  is  also  author  of  three  popular  prose  works, —  Outre  Mer„ 
Hyperion,  and  Kavanagh, — and  of  an  excellent  poetical  Trans- 
lation of  Dante. 

Mr.  Longfellow's  chief  characteristics  are  simplicity,  grace,  and 
refinement.  Of  imagination  and  passion  he  has  but  little.  He 
does  not  often  startle  his  readers  by  the  utterance  of  a  new  and 
striking  thought,  but  he  perpetually  charms  them  by  presenting 
the  ordinary  sentiments  of  humanity  in  a  new  and  more  attractive 
garb. 

EXTRACTS. 


All  are  architects  of  fate, 

Working  in  these  walls  of  time  ;. 
Some  with  massive  deeds  and  great. 

Some  with  ornaments  of  rhyme. 

Nothing  useless  is  or  low ; 

Each  thing  in  its  place  is  best ; 
And  what  seems  but  idle  show 

Strengthens  and  supports  the  resfi. 

For  the  structure  that  we  raise  f^ 

Time  is  with  materials  filled ; 
Our  to-days  and  yesterdays 

Are  the  blocks  with  which  we  build.. 

Truly  shape  and  fashion  these ; 

Leave  no  yawning  gaps  between; 
Think  not,  because  no  man  sees. 

Such  things  will  remain  unseen. 

The  Builders, 


76  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

II. 
There  is  no  death ;  what  seems  so  is  transition  j 

This  life  of  mortal  breath 
Is  but  a  suburb  of  the  life  elysian 

Whose  portal  we  call  death.  Resignation. 

III. 
Be  not  like  a  stream  that  brawls 
Loud  with  shallow  waterfalls, 
But  in  quiet  self-control 
Link  together  soul  and  soul.  Songo  River, 

IV. 

Alike  are  life  and  death, 

When  life  in  death  survives. 
And  the  uninterrupted  breath 

Inspires  a  thousand  lives. 

On  Charles  Sumner, 


Up  soared  the  lark  into  the  air, 
A  shaft  of  song,  a  winged  prayer. 
As  if  a  soul,  released  from  pain, 
Were  flying  back  to  heaven  again. 

The  Sermon  of  St.  Francis. 


The  talent  of  success  is  nothing  more  than  doing  what  you  can 
do  well,  and  doing  well  whatever  you  do,  without  a  thought  of 
fame. 


WHITTIER.  1808- 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier  was  born  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  in  1808. 
While  a  boy  he  worked  with  his  father  on  a  farm,  sometimes 
assisting,  during  the  winter  months,  in  making  shoes.  His  edu- 
cation was  obtained  in  the  schools  of  his  native  village.  On  be- 
coming of  age  he  became  editor  of  a  paper,  and  has  ever  since 
devoted  himself  to  literature.  He  is  unmarried,  and  has  resided, 
since  1840,  at  Amesbury,  Mass. 

Whittier  has  written  much  both  in  prose  and  poetry,  but  is 
chiefly  distinguished  as  a  poet.  Among  his  most  popular  poems 
are — Maud  Mullert  Barbara  Frietchie,  My  Fsalm,  My  Flaymate, 


NATIONAL  AGE.  77 

Snow-Bound^  Among  the  Hills,  A  Tent  on  the  Beach^  Mabel 
Martin  (The  Witch's  Daughter  revised),  and  Centennial  Hymn. 
His  principal  prose  works  are  Old  Portraits  and  Modern  Sketches^ 
and  Literary  Recreations. 

In  Whittier's  poems  we  find  masculine  vigor  combined  with 
womanly  tenderness;  a  tierce  hatred  of  wrong,  with  an  all- 
embracing  charity  and  love.  In  his  anti-slavery  and  patriotic 
lyrics,  '.'he  seems,"  as  Whipple  says,  "to  pour  out  his  blood  with 
his  lines,"  so  terrible  is  his  energy;  but  in  most  of  his  poems, 
especially  his  later  ones,  we  find  only  the  calm  earnestness  of  the 
inquirer  after  truth,  combined  with  the  sublime  faith  and  prayerful 
resignation  of  the  true  Christian.  He  lacks  Longfellow's  wide 
and  elegant  culture,  but  surpasses  him  in  real  poetic  genius,  and 
ranks  next  to  him  in  popularity. 

EXTRACTS. 
I, 
I  pray  the  prayer  of  Plato  old, — 

God  make  thee  beautiful  within. 
And  let  thine  eyes  the  good  behold 

In  everything  save  sin.  My  Namesake, 

II. 
The  riches  of  a  commonwealth 

Are  free,  strong  minds  and  hearts  of  health ; 
And  more  to  her  than  gold  or  grain. 
The  cunning  hand  and  cultured  brain. 

Our  State, 
III. 
For  still  in  mutual  sufferance  lies 

The  secret  of  true  living ; 
Love  scarce  is  love,  that  never  knows 

The  sweetness  of  forgiving.         Among  the  Hills, . 

IV. 

The  clouds  which  rise  with  thunder,  slake 

Our  thirsty  souls  with  rain  ; 
The  blow  most  dreaded  falls  to  break 

From  off  our  limbs  a  chain  ; 
And  wrongs  of  man  to  man  but  make 

The  love  of  God  more  plain ; 
As,  through  the  shadowy  lens  of  even^ 
The  eye  looks  farthest  mto  heaven. 


78  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

On  gleams  of  star  and  depths  of  blue 

The  glaring  sunshine  never  knew.  AlVs  Well. 


LOWELL.   1819- 

James  Russell  Lowell,  poet,  essayist,  and  critic,  was  born  at 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1 81 9,  graduated  at  Harvard,  and  has  for 
more  than  twenty  years  been  Professor  of  Belles-Lettres  in  that 
institution. 

Prof.  Lowell  is  about  equally  distinguished  in  poetry  and  prose. 
Among  the  best  of  his  poems  are — The  Biglow  Papers,  The 
Present  Crisis,  Sir  Lau7tfal,  A  Glance  Behitid  the  Curtain, 
Under  the  Willows,  Commemoration  Ode,  The  First  Snowfall, 
Louging,  and  The  Changeling. 

His  principal  prose  works  are  his  three  volumes  of  essays  and 
reviews,  two  of  which  are  entitled  Among  My  Books,  and  the  other 
My  Study  Window. 

Lowell  excels  in  so  many  things  that  it  is  difficult  to  say  what 
is  his  leading  characteristic.  Probably  nowhere  else  in  the  whole 
range  of  contemporary  literature  can  be  found  such  versatility 
combined  with  such  excellence.  In  some  of  his  poems  we  most 
admire  his  wit,  in  others  his  delicacy  and  pathos,  in  others  his 
fine  descriptive  power,  in  others  his  airy  fancy,  in  others  the  dar- 
ing sweep  of  his  imagination  and  the  terrible  energy  of  his  passion ; 
and  always  and  everywhere  there  is  an  ease  and  facility  of  move- 
ment that  makes  us  feel  that  he  is  not  putting  forth  half  his  strength. 
But  with  all  his  excellence  he  is  not  a  popular  poet,  like  Long- 
fellow. He  is  too  subtle  and  profound ;  requires  too  much  thought 
on  the  part  of  the  reader.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in  his  later 
poems.  These  are  not  only  difficult  but  obscure,  so  that  reading 
them  is  to  ordinary  minds  not  a  pleasure  but  a  task.  His  great 
learning  and  his  thought-power  seem  to  have  got  the  better  of  his 
poetic  sensibility,  and  to  have  spoiled  a  great  poet  to  make  a  great 
critic. 

As  an  essayist  and  reviewer  he  has  no  living  superior.  His 
knowledge  is  extensive,  his  judgment  sound,  and  his  style  both 
-brilliant  and  forcible. 


NA  TIONAL  A  GE,  79 

EXTRACTS. 


And  what  is  so  rare  as  a  day  in  June  ? 

Then  if  ever  come  perfect  days ; 
Then  Heaven  tries  the  earth  if  it  be  in  tune, 
And  over  it  softly  her  warm  ear  lays. 

Sir  Launfal. 
II. 
All  that  hath  been  majestical 

In  life  or  death  since  time  began, 
Is  native  in  the  simple  heart  of  all. 
The  angel-heart  of  man. 

Incident  in  a  R.  R,  Car, 
III. 
He  's  true  to  God  who  's  true  to  man ;  wherever  wrong  is  done, 
To  the  humblest  and  the  weakest  'neath  the  all-beholding  sun, 
That  wrong  is  also  done  to  us ;  and  they  are  slaves  most  base, 
Whose  love  of  right  is  for  themselves,  and  not  for  all  the  race. 
On  the  Capture  of  Certain  Fugitive  Slaves. 

IV. 
Get  but  the  truth  once  uttered,  and  't  is  like 
A  star  new-born  that  drops  into  its  place. 
And  which  once  circling  in  its  placid  round, 
Not  all  the  tumult  of  the  earth  can  shake. 

A  Glance  behind  the  Curtain 


Of  all  the  myriad  moods  of  mind 

That  through  the  soul  come  thronging, 
"What  one  was  e'er  so  dear,  so  kind, 

So  beautiful,  as  longing  ? 
The  thing  we  long  for,  that  we  are 

For  one  transcendent  moment, 
Before  the  present,  poor  and  bare. 

Can  make  its  sneering  comment. 

Still  through  our  paltry  stir  and  strife 

Glows  down  the  wished  ideal. 
And  Longing  moulds  in  clay  what  Life 

Carves  in  the  marble  real. 
To  let  the  new  life  in,  we  know, 

Desire  must  ope  the  portal ;  ^ 

Perhaps  the  longing  to  be  so 

Helps  make  the  soul  immortal.  Longing, 


80  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

VI. 

What  a  man  pays  for  bread  and  butter  is  worth  its  market  value, 
and  no  more;  what  he  pays  for  love's  sake  is  gold  indeed,  which 
has  a  lure  for  angels'  eyes,  and  rings  well  upon  God's  touchstone. 


HOLMES.   1809- 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  one  of  the  most  witty,  original,  and 
brilliant  writers  of  the  present  day,  was  born  in  1809.  He  is  a 
graduate  of  Harvard  College,  and  has  for  many  years  been  a  med- 
ical lecturer  in  that  institution. 

He  is  distinguished  both  in  poetry  and  prose.  His  lyrics,  such 
as  Union  and  Liberty ,  Old  Ironsides^  Welcome  to  all  Nations yOtc, 
are  among  the  most  spirited  and  beautiful  in  the  language ;  and 
bis  humorous  poems,  such  as  The  One-Hoss  Shay,  My  Aunt,  etc., 
have  an  irresistible  quaintness  and  drollery,  combined  with  that 
tender  and  kindly  feeling  which  is  always  a  characteristic  of  true 
humor.  Some  of  his  happiest  efforts  are  the  poems  written  for  class 
reunions  and  other  special  occasions.  Of  these,  Our  Boys  and 
Bill  and  yoe  are  good  examples. 

Dr.  Holmes  is  not  only  one  of  the  wittiest,  but  also  one  of  the 
wisest  of  our  writers.  His  works,  particularly  his  prose  works, 
present  a  succession  of  the  most  brilliant  and  original  thoughts, 
which  fill  the  mind  of  the  reader  with  ever  recurring  wonder  and 
delight.  The  best  of  his  prose  works  is  the  series  of  papers  con- 
tributed to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  under  the  title  of  The  Autocrat 
of  the  Breakfast  Table,  These  were  followed  by  The  Professor 
at  the  Breakfast  Table,  Elsie  Venner  {z.  novel),  The  Guardian 
Angel  (a  novel),  and  The  Poet  at  the  Breakfast  Table, 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
We  count  the  broken  lyres  that  rest 

Where  the  sweet  wailing  singers  slumber. 
But  o'er  their  silent  sister's  breast 

The  wild  flowers,  who  will  stoop  to  number  ? 
A  few  can  touch  the  magic  string, 

And  noisy  fame  is  proud  to  win  them  j 


NATIONAL  AGE.  81 

Alas  for  those  that  never  sing, 

But  die  with  all  their  music  in  them ! 

The  Voiceless, 
II. 
Day  hath  put  on  his  jacket,  and  around 
His  burning  bosom  buttoned  it  with  stars. 

Evening — by  a  Tailor, 
III. 
By  every  hill  whose  stately  pines 

Wave  their  dark  arms  above 
The  home  where  some  fair  being  shines, 

To  warm  the  wilds  with  love, 
From  barest  rock  to  bleakest  shore 

Where  farthest  sail  unfurls, 
That  stars  and  stripes  are  streaming  o'er, — 
God  bless  our  Yankee  Girls  ! 

Our    Yankee  Girls, 
IV. 
Put  not  your  trust  in  money,  but  put  your  money  in  trust. 

V. 

Men,  like  peaches  and  pears,  grow  sweet  a  little  while  before 
they  begin  to  decay. 

VI. 

The  best  part  of  our  knowledge  is  that  which  teaches  us  where 
knowledge  leaves  off  and  ignorance  begins. 


POE.   1811-1849. 

Edgar  Allan  Poe,  a  brilliant  but  erratic  genius,  was  born  in 
Baltimore  in  18 11.  Left  an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  he  was 
adopted  by  Mr.  Allan,  a  wealthy  gentleman  of  Baltimore,  who 
gave  him  excellent  opportunities  of  culture.  He  was  sent  to  the 
University  of  Virginia,  from  which  he  was  expelled ;  and  afterwards 
entered  the  Academy  at  West  Point,  with  a  similar  result.  After 
that  he  led  a  wild  and  irregular  life,  alienating  his  benefactor  and 
bringing  wretchedness  and  disgrace  upon  himself;  and  finally 
died  in  Baltimore,  in  1849,  ^^^^"^  the  effects  of  intemperance  and 
exposure. 

He  was  the  author  of  several  weird  and  powerful  romances — 

4* 


82  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

among  them  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,  The  Gold  Bug,  and 

The  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue — and  a  number  of  poems,  the 

most  remarkable  of  which  are  The  Raven  and   The  Bells.     Both 

of  these  poems  are  wonderful  productions, — the  first  for  its  beauty 

of  rhythm  and  its  almost  unearthly  sadness ;  the  second  for  the 

perfection  of  its  harmony, — its  exquisite  adaptation  of  sound  to 

sense. 

EXTRACTS. 


Once  upon  a  midnight  dreary,  while  I  pondered, weak  and  weary, 
Over  many  a  quaint  and  curious  volume  of  forgotten  lore, — 
While  I  nodded,  nearly  napping,  suddenly  there  came  a  tapping, 
As  o^  some  one  gently  rapping,  rapping  at  my  chamber  door. 
"'T  is  some  visitor,"  I  muttered,  "tapping  at  my  chamber  door; 
Only  this,  and  nothing  more."  The  Raven. 

II. 
The  Romans  worshipped  their  standard,  and  the  Roman  stand- 
ard happened  to  be  an  eagle.     Our  standard  is  only  one-tenth  of 
an  eagle, — a  dollar, — and  we  make  all  even  by  loving  it  with  ten- 
fold devotion. 


SAXE.  1816- 
John  Godfrey  Saxe,  one  of  the  best  of  our  humorous  poets,  was 
born  in  Vermont  in  1816,  and  graduated  at  Middlebur)''  College. 
He  studied  law,  but  has  devoted  most  of  his  life  to  literary  pur- 
suits     He  resides  at  present  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

As  a  humorist  he  resembles  Hood,  being  remarkably  quick  in 
seeing  the  ludicrous  side  of  things,  and  very  felicitous  in  the  use  of 
puns  and  other  oddities  of  speech.  His  wit  is  not  of  so  high  a  kind 
as  that  of  Lowell  and  Holmes,  but  it  certainly  is  very  excellent  of 
its  kind. 

As  examples  of  his  style  we  may  mention  The  Briefless  Bar- 
rister^ The  Proud  Miss  MacBride,  and  his  travesties  on  Orpheus 
and  Eurydice,  Fyramus  and  Thisbe,  etc. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
In  battle  or  business,  whatever  the  game, 
In  law  or  in  love,  it  is  ever  the  same ; 


NATIONAL  AGE.  83 

In  the  struggle  for  power,  or  the  scramble  for  pelf, 
Lei  this  be  your  motto  :  Rely  on  yourself! 
For  whether  the  prize  be  a  ribbon  or  throne. 
The  victor  is  he  who  can  "  go  it  alone." 

The  Game  of  Life, 

II. 
Depend  upon  it,  my  snobbish  friend, 
Your  family  line  you  can't  ascend 
Without  good  reason  to  apprehend 
You'll  find  it  waxed  at  the  farther  end 

By  some  plebeian  vocation  ! 
Or,  worse  than  that,  your  boasted  line 
May  end  in  a  loop  of  stronger  twine 

That  plagued  some  worthy  relation  ! 

Proud  Miss  Mac  Bride, 


^'         READ.  1822-1872. 

Thomas  Buchanan  Read,  poet  and  artist,  was  born  in  Chester 
County,  Pa.,  in  1822.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  went  to  Cincin- 
nati to  study  sculpture,  but  soon  turned  his  attention  to  painting  and 
poetry,  and  won  fame  in  both.  Much  of  his  life  was  spent  in 
Italy.  He  died  in  New  York  in  1872,  just  after  his  return  from 
Rome. 

Among  his  most  important  poems  are —  The  New  Pastoral,  The 
House  by  the  Sea,  The  Wagoner  of  the  Alleghenies^  Drifting,  and 
Sheridan'' s  Ride.  Of  these.  Drifting  is  the  most  beautiful,  Sheri- 
dan''s  Ride  the  most  popular. 

EXTRACT. 

The  maid  who  binds  her  warrior's  sash. 

With  smile  that  well  her  pain  dissembles, 
The  while  beneath  her  drooping  lash 

One  starry  tear-drop  hangs  and  trembles; 
Though  Heaven  alone  records  the  tear, 

And  fame  shall  never  know  her  story. 
Her  heart  has  shed  a  drop  as  dear 

As  e'er  bedewed  the  field  of  glory  ! 

The  Brave  at  Home. 
(From  the  Wagoner  of  the  AUeghenies.) 


84  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

BOKER.   1824- 

George  H.  Boker,  a  dramatic  and  lyric  poet  of  great  excellence, 
was  born  in  Philadelphia  in  1824,  and  is  a  resident  of  that  city. 
In  1 87 1  he  was  appointed  United  States  Minister  to  Constantino- 
ple, and  was  afterwards  transferred  to  St.  Petersburgh. 

Among  his  regular  dramas  are — Calaynos^  Leonorde  Guzman, 
Ann  Boieyn,  and  The  Betrothed.  They  are  conceived  in  the 
highest  style  of  dramatic  art,  and  rise  almost  to  the  dignity  of  clas- 
sics. Among  the  best  of  his  other  works  are — The  Ivoiy  Carver, 
The  Podesta''s  Daughter,  The  Black  Regiment,  and  The  Ballad  of 
Sir  John  Franklin,  all  of  which  are  excellent  of  their  kind. 

EXTRACT. 

Close  his  eyes,  his  work  is  done ; 

What  to  him  is  friend  or  foeman. 
Rise  of  moon  or  set  of  sun, 

Hand  of  man  or  kiss  of  woman  ? 
Lay  him  low,  lay  him  low. 
In  the  clover  or  the  snow. 
What  cares  he  ? — he  cannot  know ; 

Lay  him  low.        Dirge  for  a  Soldier, 


TAYLOR.   1825-   \%'\%   ^,^-C/eXAAJU>-^ 


Bayard  Taylor,  an  eminent  poet  and  traveller,  was  horn  at 
Kennett  Square,  Chester  county.  Pa.,  in  1825.  He  now  resides 
chiefly  in  New  York  city,  though  he  owns  a  residence  named 
«' Cedarcroft "  near  his  birthplace.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he 
set  out  for  a  European  tour  with  only  ^140  in  his  pocket.  The 
result  was  a  volume  entitled  Views  Afoot.  Subsequently  he  trav- 
elled in  Africa,  China,  Japan,  and  nearly  all  the  countries  of  the 
globe,  and  published  a  large  number  of  books  of  travel,  which 
were  widely  read  and  admired.  He  has  also  published  sevefal 
volumes  of  poems,  the  principal  of  which  are — Poems  of  Home 
and  Travel,  Poems  of  the  Orient,  Picture  of  St.  John^  The 
Poefs  yournal^  Lars,  and  Home  Pastorals ;  also  the  following 
novels :  Hannah  Thurston,  The  Story  of  Kennett,  John  God- 
freys Fortunes,  and  Joseph  and  his  Friend.     In  addition  to  these 


NATIONAL  AGE.  85 

he  has  published  some  historical  and  biographical  works  of  high 
merit,  and  a  wonderfully  fine  and  accurate  translation  of  Goethe's 
Faust, 

Taylor  is  clearly  the  first  of  modern  travellers,  and  he  holds  a 
high  rank  as  a  poet  and  a  novelist.  He  was  chosen  to  compose 
a  national  ode  for  the  centennial  anniversary  of  American  inde- 
pendence, July  4,  1876,  and  the  result  was  a  magnificent  poem, 
that  does  honor  to  himself  and  to  his  country.  We  believe  that 
posterity  will  assign  him  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  American 
poets. 

EXTRACTS. 

I. 
Only  a  woman  knows  a  woman's  need.  Lars. 

II. 
The  healing  of  the  world 
Is  in  its  nameless  saints.     Each  separate  star 
Seems  nothing ;  but  a  myriad  scattered  stars 
Break  up  the  night  and  make  it  beautiful.  Lars* 

III. 
They  sang  of  love,  and  not  of  fame ; 

Forgot  was  Britain's  glory ; 
Each  heart  recalled  a  different  name, 
But  all  sang  "Annie  Laurie." 

Voice  after  voice  caught  up  the  song. 

Until  its  tender  passion 
Rose  like  an  anthem,  rich  and  strong, — 

Their  battle-eve  confession. 


And  Irish  Nora's  eyes  are  dim 

For  a  singer  dumb  and  gory ; 
And  English  Mary  mourns  for  him 

Who  sang  of  "  Annie  Laurie." 

Sleep,  soldiers !  still  in  honored  rest 

Your  truth  and  valor  wearing; 
The  bravest  are  the  tenderest, — 
The  loving  are  the  daring. 

The  Song  of  the  Camp, 
IV. 
He  who  would  lead  must  first  himself  be  led ; 
Who  would  be  loved  be  capable  of  love 


86  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

Beyond  the  utmost  he  receives ;  who  claims 

The  rod  of  power  must  first  have  bowed  his  head, 

And,  being  honored,  honor  what  's  above : 

This  know  the  men  who  leave  the  world  their  names. 

Fi'om  a  Sonnet. 


ALICE  GARY.  1820-1871. 
Miss  Alice  Gary,  the  best  poetess  that  this  country  has  produced, 
was  born  near  Gincinnati  in  1 820,  and  died  at  her  home  in  New 
York  city  in  187 1.  She  used  her  pen  as  a  means  of  support;  and 
notwithstanding  her  delicate  health,  she  made  large  and  import- 
ant contributions  to  the  literature  of  our  country.  Among  her 
prose  works  are  Clovernooky  a  volume  of  sketches;  Married^  not 
Mated,  and  Hollywood,  novels;  and  Pictures  of  Country  Life. 
Her  poems,  together  with  her  sister  Phoebe's,  fill  several  volumes. 
Among  the  best  of  her  separate  poems  are — Thanksgivi?zg  (a  long 
poem  not  unworthy  of  Wordsworth),  Pictures  of  Memory,  Order 
for  a  Picture,  The  Bridal  Veil,  Krumley,  Here  and  There,  The 
Poet  to  the  Painter,  etc. 

Alice  Gary  is  the  Jean  Ingelow  of  America.  Her  poems  are 
thoughtful,  graceful,  full  of  religious  feeling,  and  everywhere 
sparkling  with  poetic  beauties. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
'T  is  not  a  wild  chorus  of  praises, 

Nor  chance,  nor  yet  fate  ; 
'T  is  the  greatness  born  with  him  and  in  him, 
That  makes  the  man  great. 

The  Measure  of  Time. 
II. 
I  hold  that  Christian  grace  abounds 
Where  charity  is  seen ;  that  when 
We  climb  to  Heaven,  't  is  on  the  rounds 

Of  love  to  men.  My  Creed. 

III. 
Not  what  God  gives,  but  what  He  takes, 

Uplifts  us  to  the  holiest  height ; 
On  truth's  rough  crags  life's  current  breaks 

To  diamond  light.  Faith  and  Works. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  87 

IV. 
Our  God  is  love,  and  that  which  we  miscall 

Evil,  in  this  good  world  that  He  has  made, 

Is  meant  to  be  a  little  tender  shade 
Between  us  and  His  glory, — that  is  all; 
And  he  who  loves  the  best  his  fellow  man, 
Is  loving  God,  the  holiest  way  he  can. 


Do  you  hear  the  wild  birds  calling, 

Hear  them  calling,  O  my  heart  ? 
Do  you  see  the  blue  air  falling 

From  their  rushing  wings  apart  ? 

With  young  mosses  they  are  flocking, 

For  they  hear  the  laughing  breeze. 
With  dewy  fingers  rocking 

Their  light  cradles  in  the  trees.  May  Verses. 


Phoebe  Gary. — Phoebe  Gary,  who  died  a  few  months  after 
her  sister  Alice,  was  also  richly  endowed  with  poetic  genius.  She 
was  exceedingly  witty,  and  loved  to  amuse  herself  by  writing 
parodies  and  other  amusing  things.  But  she  also  wrote  some 
beautiful  serious  pieces,  among  them  Field  Preachings  and  the 
popular  hymn  beginning — 

"  One  sweetly  solemn  thought 
Gomes  to  me  o'er  and  o'er. 
That  I  'm  nearer  my  home  to-day. 
Than  I  've  ever  been  before." 


ALDRIGH.  1836- 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  who  was  born  at  Portsmouth,  N.  H., 
in  1836,  has  lately  attained  high  rank  as  a  lyric  poet  and  a  novel- 
ist. He  has  not  attempted  anything  grand  in  poetry,  but  what  he 
has  attempted  he  has  accomplished  with  the  utmost  beauty  and 
perfection.  Among  his  poems  are  Babie  Bell,  The  Face  Against 
the  Pane,  Friar  Jerome^ s  Beautiful  Book,  and  others,  which  are 
delicate  and  charming  productions.  His  principal  novels  are 
The  Story  of  a  Bad  Boy,  Margery  Daw  and  other  Stories,  and 


88  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Prudence  Palfrey ^  which  are  deservedly  popular.  Margery  Daw 
is  one  of  the  most  unique  and  original  conceptions  of  modem  no- 
tion. 

EXTRACTS. 

I.    BEFORE  THE  RAIN. 

We  knew  it  would  rain,  for  all  the  mom, 

A  spirit  on  slender  ropes  of  mist 
Was  lowering  its  golden  buckets  down 

Into  the  vapory  amethyst 

Of  marshes  and  swamps  and  dismal  fens; 

Scooping  the  dew  that  lay  in  the  flowers, 
Dipping  the  jewels  out  of  the  sea, 

To  scatter  them  over  the  land  in  showers. 

We  knew  it  would  rain,  for  the  poplars  showed 
The  white  of  their  leaves,  and  the  amber  grain 

Shrunk  in  the  wind, — and  the  lightning  now 
Is  tangled  in  tremulous  skeins  of  rain. 


Mabel,  little  Mabel, 

With  face  against  the  pane, 
Looks  out  across  the  night 
And  sees  the  Beacon  Light 

A-trembling  in  the  rain. 
She  hears  the  sea-birds  screech, 
And  the  breakers  on  the  beach 

Making  moan,  making  moan. 
And  the  wind  about  the  eaves 
Of  the  cottage  sobs  and  grieves  ; 
And  the  willow  tree  is  blown 

To  and  fro,  to  and  fro, 
Till  it  seems  like  some  old  crone. 
Standing  out  there  all  alone. 

With  her  woe  ! 
Wringing,  as  she  stands, 
Her  gaunt  and  palsied  hands, 
While  Mabel,  timid  Mabel, 

With  face  against  the  pane, 
Looks  out  across  the  night. 
And  sees  the  Beacon  Light 

A-trembling  in  the  rain. 

The  Face  against  the  Pane, 


NATIONAL  AGE.  89 

STEDMAN.   1833- 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  son  of  a  poetess  (Mrs.  E.  C.  Kin- 
ney), is  a  banker,  a  poet,  and  a  critic.  Some  of  his  poems  show 
a  very  high  order  of  genius.  Among  the  best  are — The  Doorsteps 
Pan  in  Wall  Street,  At  Twilight,  John  ^own  of  Ossawatomie, 
The  Blameless  Prince,  and  Alice  of  Monmouth. 

In  his  volume  entitled  The  Victorian  Poets,  he  has  shown  him- 
self to  be  a  critic  of  fine  discrimination,  and  a  writer  of  excellent 
prose. 

EXTRACT. 

O  heart  of  Nature,  beating  still 

With  throbs  her  vernal  passion  taught  her, 
Even  here,  as  on  the  vine-clad  hill, 

Or  by  the  Arethusan  water ! 
New  forms  may  fold  the  speech,  new  lands 

Arise  within  these  ocean  portals. 
But  Music  waves  eternal  wands, — 

Enchantress  of  the  souls  of  mortals. 

Pan  in  Wall  Street. 


HOLLAND.     18 19- 

Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  now  (1876)  editor  of  Scribner^s  Monthly^ 
is  one  of  the  most  popular,  if  not  one  of  the  greatest  of  American 
writers.  His  poems,  though  condemned  by  many  critics,  have 
had  an  immense  sale.  The  principal  ones  are  Bitter- Sweet,  Kath- 
rina,  and  Mistress  of  the  Manse.  They  are  very  faulty  in  construc- 
tion, but  contain  many  exquisite  lines.  On  the  whole,  his  prose 
works  are  better  than  his  poems.  Some  of  the  best  are  Gold  Foil^ 
Lessons  in  LAfe,  Plain  Talks,  Timothy  TitcomFs  Letters,  Ar* 
thur  Bonnicastle,  and  Sevenoaks.     The  last  two  are  novels. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Life  evermore  is  fed  by  death, 

In  earth  and  sea  and  sky. 
And  that  a  rose  may  breathe  its  breath, 

Something  must  die.  Bitter-Sweet, 


90  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 


Thus  it  is  over  all  the  earth ; 

That  which  we  call  the  fairest, 
And  prize  for  its  surpassing  worth, 

Is  always  rarest.  Bitter- Sweet. 


"Who  can  tell  what  a  baby  thinks  ? 
Who  can  follow  the  gossamer  links 

By  which  the  manikin  feels  his  way 
Out  from  the  shore  of  the  great  unknown, 
Blind  and  wailing  and  alone 

Into  the  light  of  day  ? 
Out  from  the  shore  of  the  unknown  sea, 
Tossing  in  pitiful  agony  ; 
Of  the  unknown  sea  that  reels  and  rolls. 
Specked  with  the  barks  of  little  souls, — 
Barks  that  were  launched  on  the  other  side. 
And  slipped  from  Heaven  on  an  ebbing  tide? 

Cradle  Song  from  Bitter- Sweet. 


HARTE.    1837- 

Francis  Bret  Harte  was  born  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1837.  At 
the  age  of  seventeen  he  went  to  California,  where  he  became  suc- 
cessively a  school-teacher,  a  miner,  a  printer,  and  an  editor.  He 
is  now  a  resident  of  New  York. 

Mr.  Harte  won  his  great  reputation  by  his  poems  and  sketches 
descriptive  of  life  among  the  California  miners.  Most  of  them 
are  in  the  peculiar  dialect  of  these  miners,  and  represent  the  crime 
and  the  romance,  the  roughness  and  the  tenderness,  of  this  pecu- 
liar phase  of  American  life,  with  a  fidelity  and  skill  which  com- 
mand universal  admiration. 

Of  his  dialect  poems  the  following  are  excellent  examples : 
The  Heathen  Chinee,  The  Society  upon  the  Stanislaus,  In  the  Tun- 
nel, Jim^  and  Chiquita.  Of  those  in  pure  English  these  are  among 
the  best :  Dickens  in  Camp,  The  Mountain  Heartsease,  Concha,  A 
Greyport  Legend,  and  A  Newpo7't  Roj?iance. 

Among  the  best  of  his  prose  sketches  are —  The  Luck  of  Roaring 
Camp,  The  Idyl  of  Red  Gulch,  The  Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat,  and 


NATIONAL  AGE.  91 

Tennessee's  Partner.     He  has  lately  published  (1876J  a  regular 
novel,  entitled  Gabriel  Conroy. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Which  I  wish  to  reniark, 

And  my  language  is  plain, 
That  for  ways  that  are  dark 

And  for  tricks  that  are  vain, 
The  heathen  Chinee  is  peculiar, 

Which  the  same  I  would  rise  to  explain. 

Plain  Language  from  Truthful  yames. 

II. 

That  night  the  storm  reached  its  greatest  fury,  and,  rending 
asunder  the  protecting  pines,  invaded  the  very  hut.  Toward 
morning  they  found  themselves  unable  to  feed  the  fire,  which 
gradually  died  away.  As  the  embers  slowly  blackened,  the 
Duchess  crept  close  to  Piney,  and  broke  the  silence  of  many 
hours  :  "  Piney,  can  you  pray  ?"  "  No,  dear,"  said  Piney,  simply. 
The  Duchess,  without  knowing  exactly  why,  felt  relieved,  and, 
putting  her  head  upon  Piney's  shoulder,  spoke  no  more.  And  so 
reclining,  the  younger  and  purer  pillowing  the  head  of  her  soiled 
sister  upon  her  virgin  breast,  they  fell  asleep.  The  wind  lulled  as 
if  it  feared  to  waken  them.  Feathery  drifts  of  snow,  shaken  from 
the  long  pine  boughs,  flew  like  white-winged  birds,  and  settled 
about  them  as  they  slept.  The  morn,  through*  the  rifted  clouds, 
looked  down  upon  what  had  been  the  camp.  But  all  human  stain, 
all  trace  of  earthly  travail,  was  hidden  beneath  the  spotless  man- 
tle mercifully  flung  from  above. 

They  slept  all  that  day  and  the  next,  nor  did  they  waken  when 
voices  and  footsteps  broke  the  silence  of  the  camp.  And  when 
pitying  fingers  brushed  the  snow  from  their  wan  faces,  you  could 
scarcely  have  told  from  the  equal  peace  that  dwelt  upon  them, 
which  was  she  that  had  sinned.  Even  the  law  of  Poker  Flat 
recognized  this,  and  turned  away,  leaving  them  still  locked  in  each 
other's  arms.  The  Outcasts  of  Poker  Flat. 


MILLER.  1841- 
Cincinnatus  Heine  Miller,  known  as  Joaquin  Miller,  was  born 
in  Indiana  in  1841.  When  ten  years  old  he  went  with  his 
parents  to  Oregon.  He  spent  three  or  four  years  on  a  farm,  and 
then  went  to  California.  After  fifteen  years  of  wild  and  adven- 
tu^-ous  life  among  miners,  Indians,  and  filibusters,  he  studied  law 


92  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

and  became  a  judge.  In  1870  he  went  to  London,  where,  after 
much  difficulty  in  finding  a  publisher,  he  brought  out  a  volume 
of  poems,  which  made  him  famous  on  both  continents.  He  now 
resides  in  New  York. 

His  principal  poems  are  contained  in  the  volumes  entitled 
Songs  of  the  Sierras,  Songs  of  the  Sun- Lands,  and  The  Ship  in 
the  Desert.  Of  individual  poems  probably  7^/^f  Arizonian,  The 
Isles  of  the  Amazons,  and  Burns  and  Byron  are  among  the  best, 
Mr,  Miller's  poems  are  often  unnatural  and  extravagant,  but  there 
is  in  them  a  certain  wild  freedom  and  passion  in  perfect  keeping 
with  the  life  and  scenery  from  which  he  drew  his  inspiration,  with 
a  tropical  richness  of  imagery,  and  an  almost  cloying  sweetness  of 
rhythm  and  rhyme. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
In  men  whom  men  condemn  as  ill 
I  find  so  much  of  goodness  still, 
In  men  whom  men  pronounce  divine 

I  find  so  much  of  sin  and  blot, 
I  hesitate  to  draw  a  line 

Between  the  two,  where  God  has  not. 

Burns  and  Byron, 
II. 
The  east  is  blossoming  !     Yea,  a  rose, 
Vast  as  the  heavens,  soft  as  a  kiss, 
Sweet  as  the  presence  of  woman  is. 
Rises  and  reaches  and  widens  and  grows 
Right  out  of  the  sea,  as  a  blossoming  tree ; 
Richer  and  richer,  so  higher  and  higher, 
Deeper  and  deeper  it  takes  its  hue ; 
Brighter  and  brighter  it  reaches  through 
The  space  of  heaven  and  the  place  of  stars, 
Till  all  is  as  rich  as  a  rose  can  be. 
And  my  rose-leaves  fall  into  billows  of  fire. 
Then  beams  reach  upward  as  arms  from  a  sea ; 
Then  lances  and  arrows  are  aimed  at  me ; 
Then  lances  and  spangles  and  spars  and  bars 
Are  broken  and  shivered  and  strewn  on  the  sea ; 
And  around  and  about  me,  tower  and  spire 
Start  from  the  billows  like  tongues  of  fire. 

Sunrise  in  Venice, 


fM 


NATIONAL  AGE,  93 

OTHER  POETS  OF  THIS  AGE. 

Richard  H.  Dana  (1787-  ),  author  of  The  Buccaneer,  a  poem,  and 
Lectures  on  Shakspeare. 

John  Pierpont  (i 785-1866),  author  of  Airs  of  Palestine,  Passing  Away, 
E  Pluribus  Unum,  and  other  lyrics. 

James  G.  Percival  (1795-1856),  a  very  learned  man,  author  of  three  vol- 
umes of  miscellanies  entitled  Clio.  One  of  his  most  popular  poems  is  To 
Seneca  Lake. 

John  Howard  Payne  (1792-1852),  a  dramatist;  author  of  Brutus  ana 
other  plays,  and  of  Home,  Sweet  Home, 

Charles  Sprague  (1791-1875),  a  banker  and  poet,  author  of  Ode  on  Shak- 
speare, The  Family  Meeting,  The  Winged  Worshippers,  etc. 

George  P.  Morris  (1802- 1864),  an  excellent  song  writer,  long  editor  of 
The  Home  Journal,  author  of  My  Mother's  Bible,  Woodman,  Spare  that 
Tree,  etc, 

N.  P.  Willis  (1806-1867),  editor,  with  Morris,  of  The  Home  yourna/^and 
author  of  twenty-seven  volumes  of  poetry  and  prose.  Of  his  poetry  The 
Death  of  Absalom,  Hagar  in  the  Wilderness,  and  other  Scriptural  Poems,  are 
the  best ;  of  his  prose,  Letters  from  under  a  Bridge,  People  I  have  Met,  Life 
Here  and  There,  Famous  Persons  and  Places,  etc. 

Alfred  B.  Street  (iBh-  ),  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  author  of  Frontenac, 
The  Gray  Forest  Eagle,  and  other  poems ;  also  of  Forest  Pictures  in  the  Adi- 
rondacks,  etc.,  in  prose. 

R,  H.  Stoddard  (1825-  ),  a  magazinist,  and  author  of  several  volumes 
of  poetry  and  prose.  Among  his  well-known  poems  are  Burial  of  Lincoln, 
A  Hymn  to  the  Beautiful,  The  Burden  of  Unrest,  Never  Again,  On  the 
Town,  etc, 

Walt  Whitman  (1819-  ),  by  some  regarded  as  a  great  poet ;  by  others, 
as  no  poet  at  all.  His  so-called  poems  are  without  metre  or  rhyme.  Author 
of  Drum  Taps,  Leaves  of  Grass,  and  Two  Rivulets. 


II.  Prose  Writers  of  the  National  Age. 


IRVING.  1 783-1859. 

Washington  Irving,  the  most  popular  of  American  prose  writers, 

was  born  in  New  York  in  1783  ;  studied  law,  but  did  not  practice 

it ;  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits,  but  without  success ;  passed 

twenty-three  years  of  his  life  in  Europe,  four  of  them  as  Minister 


94  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

to  Spain ;  and  spent  his  remaining  years  at  Sunnyside,  on  the 
Hudson,  where  he  died  in  1 859,  universally  loved  and  lamented. 

Among  the  most  interesting  of  his  works  are — Knickerbocker 
(a  humorous  history  of  New  York),  Bracebi'idge  Hall,  The  Sketch 
Book  (which  contains  Rip  Van  Winkle,  Ichabod  Crane,  The 
Broken  Heart,  Sleepy  Hollow,  and  other  popular  sketches).  Life 
of  Goldsmith^  Life  of  Columbus,  The  Life  of  Washington,  The 
Alhambra,  and  The  Conquest  of  Grenada. 

Irving  has  been  called  "  The  American  Goldsmith,"  on  account 
of  the  similarity  of  his  style  to  that  of  Goldsmith ;  and  all  that  has 
been  said  in  eulogy  of  the  style  of  Addison,  may  be  truthfully  ap- 
plied to  that  of  Irving.  Not  the  least  of  his  merits  is  the  absolute 
purity  of  every  word  and  thought.  In  this  respect  as  well  as 
others,  his  works  are  the  image  of  the  man.  He  was  genial, 
sympathetic,  loving;  and  was  worthily  rewarded  by  the  love  and 
honor  of  his  countrymen  and  of  the  whole  civilized  world. 

EXTRACTS. 


Little  minds  are  tamed  and  subdued   by  misfortune,  but  great 
minds  rise  above  it. 


How  easy  it  is  for  one  benevolent  being  to  diffuse  pleasure  all 
around  him  ;  and  how  truly  is  a  kind  heart  a  fountain  of  gladness, 
making  everything  in  its  vicinity  to  freshen  into  smiles ! 


Surely  happiness  is  reflective,  like  the  light  of  heaven ;  and 
every  countenance  bright  with  smiles,  and  glowing  with  innocent 
enjoyment,  is  a  mirror  transmitting  to  others  the  rays  of  a  supreme 
and  ever-shining  benevolence. 


PRESCOTT.   1 796-1 859. 

William  H.  Prescott,  one  of  our  greatest  historians,  was  born  at 
Salem,  Mass.,  in  1796,  graduated  at  Harvard,  and  though  nearly 
blind,  devoted  himself  to  a  literary  life. 

His  principal  works  are — Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  Conquest  of 


NATIONAL  AGE.  95 

Mexico i  Conquest  of  Peru,  Robertson^ s  Charles  V.  (with  original 
matter),  Philip  II. ,  and  a  volume  of  Miscellanies. 

Prescott  had  the  genius  to  invest  the  dry  facts  of  history  with 
the  charms  of  fiction;  and  yet  he  never  sacrifices  truth  to  the 
graces  of  style.  He  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  classical  historians. 
(See  Ticknor's  Life  of  Prescott.) 

EXTRACT. 

The  triumphs  of  the  warrior  are  bounded  hy  the  narrow  theatre 
of  his  own  age  ;  but  those  of  a  Scott  or  a  Shakspeare  will  be  re- 
newed with  greater  and  greater  lustre  in  ages  yet  unborn,  when 
the  victorious  chieftain  shall  be  forgotten,  or  live  only  in  the  song 
of  the  minstrel  and  the  page  of  the  chronicler. 


BANCROFT.   1800- 

George  Bancroft,  a  great  historian  and  statesman,  was  born  at 
Worcester,  Mass.,  in  1800.  He  graduated  at  Harvard,  and  after- 
wards studied  at  Gottingen,  Germany.  He  has  filled  various 
offices  under  the  general  government, — among  them  those  of  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy,  Minister  to  England,  and  Minister  to  Germany, 
— and  always  with  dignity  and  ability.  His  great  work  is  a  His- 
tory of  the  United  States,  a  revised  edition  of  which  has  just  been 
published  (1876)  in  six  volumes,  octavo.  He  has  exercised  the 
most  scrupulous  care  both  as  to  facts  and  style,  and  his  work  will 
probably  remain  the  standard  history  of  our  country. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

The  charities  of  life  are  scattered  everywhere,^  enamelling  the 
vales  of  human  beings  as  the  flowers  paint  the  meadows.  They 
are  not  the  fruit  of  study,  nor  the  privilege  of  refinement,  but  a 
natural  instinct. 

II. 

The  common  mind  is  the  true  Parian  marble,  fit  to  be  wrought 
into  likeness  to  a  god. 

♦Compare  Wordsworth's  lines, — 

"The  primal  duties  shine  aloft  like  stars  ; 
The  charities,  that  soothe  and  heal  and  bless, 
Are  scattered  at  the  feet  of  man  like  flowers." 


96  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

MOTLEY.   1814- 

John  Lothrop  Motley,  the  third  of  our  trio  of  great  historinrii, 
was  born  at  Dorchester,  Mass.,  in  1814,  and  graduated  at  Harvard 
College.  Like  Bancroft,  he  has  filled  important  diplomatic  offices, 
having  been  Minister  to  Austria  and  Minister  to  England. 

His  great  works  are — Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  History  of  the 
United  Netherlands,  and  John  of  Barnaveldt.  In  vigor  and 
brilliancy  of  style  he  is  unsurpassed  by  any  historian  of  the  cen- 
tury except  Macaulay. 

EXTRACT. 

The  orbit  of  civilization,  so  far  as  our  perishing  records  enable 
us  to  trace  it,  seems  preordained  from  East  to  West.  China,  In- 
dia, Palestine,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome,  are  successively  lighted  up, 
as  the  majestic  orb  of  day  moves  over  them ;  and  as  he  advances 
still  farther  through  his  storied  and  mysterious  zodiac,  we  behold 
the  shadows  of  evening  as  surely  falling  on  the  lands  which  he 
leaves  behind  him. 

V 

COOPER.  1789-1851. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper,  the  first  of  our  novelists  who  won  a 
European  reputation,  was  born  in  New  Jersey  in  1 789.  He  en- 
tered Yale  College,  but  did  not  graduate ;  served  six  years  in  the 
navy;  then  married  and  settled  down  to  a  life  of  literary  labor. 
He  died  at  Cooperstown,  N.  Y.,  in  1 851. 

His  novels  number  thirty-three.  Nine  of  these  are  Sea  Tales, 
and  five  others  form  the  Leather  Stocking  Series.  Probably  the 
most  popular  novels  are  The  Spy,  The  Prairie,  The  Last  of  the 
Mohicans,  and  The  Pilot — the  latter  being,  of  course,  one  of  the 
sea  tales.  Besides  these  works  he  published  Naval  History  of 
the  United  States,  Lives  of  American  Naval  Officers,  and  several 
books  of  travel. 

Cooper  possessed  great  descriptive  power ;  and  most  of  his  de- 
scriptions were  drawn  from  scenes  with  which  he  was  familiar. 
Consequently  his  delineations  of  border  life  and  character,  and  of 
life  at  sea,  are  extremely  graphic  and  spirited. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  97 

EXTRACT. 

If  you  are  about  to  strive  for  your  life,  take  with  you  a  stout  heart 
and  a  clean  conscience,  and  trust  the  rest  to  God.        The  Pilot. 


HAWTHORNE.  1 804-1 864. 

Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  probably  the  rarest  genius  that  America 
has  produced,  was  born  at  Salem,  Mass.,  in  1804,  and  graduated 
at  Bowdoin  College  in  1825,  in  the  same  class  with  the  poet  Long- 
fellow. He  was  for  three  years  an  officer  in  the  Custom  House 
at  Salem,  and  for  four  years  (during  Pierce's  administration) 
Consul  at  Liverpool.  His  home,  for  the  last  twenty  years  of  his 
life,  was  at  Concord,  Mass.,  where  he  died  in  1864. 

Of  his  many  works,  we  name  the  following  as  among  the  best : 
Twice-  Told  Tales,  Mosses  from  an  Old  Manse,  The  Scarlet  Let- 
ter, The  Bouse  of  the  Seven  Gables,  The  Blithedale  Ro7nance,  and 
The  Marble  Faun.  The  first  two  are  collections  of  sketches 
and  tales,  such  as  A  Rill  from  the  Town  Pump,  The  Celestial 
Railroad  (an  allegory),  Little  Annie's  Ramble,  etc. 

We  regard  The  Scarlet  Letter  as  his  masterpiece.  In  keen  and 
subtle  analysis,  in  patient,  almost  insensible  development  of  plot, 
as  well  as  in  beauty  of  description,  and  purity  and  elegance  of 
diction,  it  stands  alone  in-  American  fiction,  unapproached  except 
by  other  works  of  the  same  great  master.  Hawthorne's  special 
characteristics  are  his  power  of  analyzing  and  developing  the 
weird  and  mysterious,  and  of  breathing  a  living  soul  into  every- 
thing that  he  touched  with  the  magic  wand  of  his  genius. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 

No  fountain  is  so  small  but  that  heaven  may  be  imaged  in  its 
bosom. 

Tl. 

All  brave  men  love ;  for  he  only  is  brave  who  has  affections  to 
fight  for,  whether  in  the  daily  battle  of  life  or  in  physical  contests. 

III. 
Thank  heaven  for  breath — ^yes,  for  mere   breath — when  it  is 
made  up  of  a  breeze  like  this !     It  comes  with  a  real  kiss  upon 

5 


98  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

our  cheeks;  it  would  linger  fondly  around  us  if  it  might;  but 
since  it  must  be  gone,  it  embraces  us  with  its  whole  kindly  heart, 
and  passes  onward  to  embrace  likewise  the  next  thing  that  it 
meets.  A  blessing  is  flowing  abroad  and  scattered  far  and  wide 
over  the  earth,  to  be  gathered  up  by  all  who  choose. 


MRS.  STOWE.  1812- 
Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  the  greatest  female  novelist  of 
America,  was  born  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  in  181 2.  She  is  the 
daughter  of  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher,  sister  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
and  wife  of  Prof.  Calvin  E.  Stowe.  Her  principal  work.  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  has  had  a  larger  sale  than  any  other  American 
novel.  Over  1,000,000  copies  were  sold  in  the  first  nine  months 
after  its  publication.  The  best  of  her  other  works  are — The 
Minister's  Wooing,  Oldiown  Folks,  Oldtown  Fireside  Stoides,  and 
My  Wife  and  I. 

EXTRACT. 

Any  mind  that  is  capable  of  real  sorrow  is  capable  of  good. 

II. 
In  the  gates  of  eternity,  the  black  hand  and  the  white  hold  each 
other  with  equal  clasp. 


EVERETT.  1794-1865. 

Edward  Everett,  the  most  finished  orator  that  this  country  has 
produced,  was  born  at  Dorchester,  Mass.,  in  1794.  He  graduated 
at  Cambridge,  and  still  further  cultivated  his  mind  by  several  years 
of  European  study  and  travel.  He  held  many  high  positions, — 
among  others,  those  of  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  U.  S.  Senator, 
Minister  to  England,  President  of  Harvard  College,  and  Secre- 
tary of  State. 

His  chief  works  are  his  orations,  which  are  among  the  noblest 
ever  written.  Among  his  best  efforts  are  his  Address  at  the  Dedi- 
cation of  the  Dudley  Observatoiy,  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  the  Eulogy 
on  Washington. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  99 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Education  is  a  better  safeguard  of  liberty  than  a  standing  army. 
If  we  retrench  the  wages  of  the  schoolmaster,  we  must  raise  those 
of  the  recruiting  sergeant. 

II. 

No  arch  nor  column,  in  courtly  English  or  courtlier  Latin,  sets 
forth  the  deeds  and  the  worth  of  the  Father  of  his  Country;  he 
needs  them  not ;  the  unwritten  benedictions  of  millions  cover  all 
the  walls. -^  No  gilded  dome  swells  from  the  lowly  roof  to  catch 
the  morning  or  evening  beam  ;  but  the  love  and  gratitude  of  united 
America  settle  upon  it  in  one  eternal  sunshine. 

Eulogy  on  Washington, 


WEBSTER.  1782-1852. 

Daniel  Webster,  the  great  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  was  born 
at  Salisbury,  N.  H.,  in  1782,  and  died  at  Marshfield,  Mass.,  in 
1852.  He  was  one  of  the  intellectual  giants  of  the  age.  While 
lacking  Everett's  rare  culture  and  universal  learning,  he  was  in 
natural  endowments  Everett's  superior.  His  fame  rests  upon  his 
orations  and  speeches.  Probably  his  master-pieces  are  his  Ply- 
mouth Rock  and  Bunker  Hill  orations,  his  Eulogy  on  Adams  and 
Jefferson,  and  his  great  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne.  Some  passages 
in  these  have  never  been  surpassed  by  any  orator  of  any  age  or 

country. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Liberty  and  union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable. 

II. 
One  may  live  as  a  conqueror,  a  king,  or  a  magistrate ;  but  he 
must  die  as  a  man. 

III. 
There  is  no  evil  which  we  cannot  face  or  fly  from,  but  the  con- 
sciousness of  duty  disregarded. 

IV. 

Heaven's  gates  are  not  so  highly  arched  as  kings'  palaces ;  they 
that  enter  there  must  go  upon  their  knees. 

*  Referring  to  Mt.  Vernon.  A  brief  extract  torn  from  its  connection  can 
give  no  adequate  idea  of  the  splendid  eloquence  of  a  great  orator  like  Everett. 


100  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

AGASSIZ.  1807-1873. 
Louis  J.  R.  Agassiz,  one  of  the  most  eminent  naturalists  of 
modern  times,  was  a  Swiss  by  birth,  but  an  adopted  citizen  of  this 
country.  He  came  to  America  in  1847,  ^'^^  from  that  time 
until  his  death  was  a  professor  in  Harvard  University.  His  sci- 
entific writings  attained  great  popularity,  on  account  of  their  excel- 
lence, both  of  matter  and  style.  The  principal  of  these  are  Meth- 
ods of  Study  in  Natural  History^  Geological  Sketches,  and  A 
Journey  in  Brazil  (by  himself  and  his  wife). 

EXTRACT. 

There  was  a  time  when  our  earth  was  in  a  stateof  igneous  fusion ; 
when  no  ocean  bathed  it,  and  no  atmosphere  surrounded  it ; 
when  no  wind  blew  over  it,  and  no  rain  fell  upon  it ;  but  an  in- 
tense heat  held  all  its  materials  in  solution.  In  those  days  the 
rocks  which  are  now  the  very  bones  and  sinews  of  our  mother 
Earth — her  granites,  her  porphyries,  her  basalts,  her  sienites — 
were  melted  into  a  liquid  mass.  Geological  Sketches, 


EMERSON.  1803-  \%%t  -  V\^f^^ 

Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  "  the  sage  of  Concord,"  was  born  in 
Boston  in  1803,  graduated  at  Harvard,  preached  for  a  time,  and 
then  retired  to  Concord,  Mass.,  where  he  still  lives.  He  is  the 
head  of  what  is  called  the  '*  transcendental  school  of  philosophy  " 
in  this  country — a  profound  and  original  thinker,  and  an  idiomatic 
and  vigorous  writer.  He  has  made  a  more  deep  and  lasting  im- 
pression on  the  thought  and  literature  of  his  age  than  any  other 
living  author. 

His  principal  works  are  Representative  Men,  English  Traits^ 
and  several  volumes  oi  Essays,  the  last  of  which  is  entitled  Letters 
and  Social  Aims. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Self-trust  is  the  essence  of  heroism. 


Fear  God,  and  where  you  go,  men  shall  think  they  walk  in 
hallowed  cathedrals. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  101 

III. 
Hope  never  spreads  her  golden  wings   but  in  unfathomable 
seas. 

IV. 

Beauty  is  the  mark  God  sets  on  virtue.  Every  natural  action  is 
graceful.  Every  heroic  action  is  also  decent,  and  causes  the  place 
and  the  bystanders  to  shine. 

V. 

One  of  the  illusions  is  that  the  present  hour  is  not  the  critical, 
decisive  hour.  Write  it  on  your  heart  that  every  day  is  the  best 
day  in  the  year. 


^       WHIPPLE.   1819- 
Edwin  P.  Whipple  is  one  of  the  most  popular  and  excellent  of 
living  critics  and  essayists.     He  is  less  learned  than  Lowell  and 
less  rhetorical  than  Macaulay ;  but  he  has  good  taste,  a  sound 
judgment,  and  an  agreeable  style,  and  is,  on  the  whole,  as  reliable 
as  either.     He  is  a  resident  of  Boston. 
EXTRACTS. 
I. 
Books — lighthouses  erected  in  the  great  sea  of  time. 

II. 
Felicity,  not  fluency,  of  language  is  a  merit. 

III. 
The  contemplation  of  beauty,  in  nature,  in  art,  in  literature,  in 
human  character,  diffuses  through  our  being  a  soothing  and  subtle 
joy,  by  which  the  heart's  anxious  and  aching  cares  are  softly  smiled 
away. 


N^  WHITE.  1822- 

Richard  Grant  White,  of  New  York,  is  an  eminent  Shakspearian 
scholar  and  critic.  His  chief  works  are  an  Edition  of  Shakspeare^ 
in  12  vols.,  a  Life  of  Shakspeare^  and  Words  and  Their  Uses. 

EXTRACT. 

Whoever  would  learn  to  think  naturally,  clearly,  logically,  and 
to  express  himself  intelligibly  and  earnestly,  let  him  give  his  days 
and  nights  to  William  Shakspeare. 


102  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

BISHOP  ENGLAND.  1 786-1842. 
The  Rt.  Rev.  John  England,  D.  D.,  was  born  in  Ireland  in 
1786,  came  to  the  United  States  in  1820,  and  from  that  time 
till  his  death,  in  1842,  labored  with  distinguished  zeal  and  ability 
as  Bishop  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  He  founded  institutions  of  learn- 
ing, encouraged  literature,  relieved  the  suffering,  comforted  the 
afflicted,  and,  assisted  by  his  noble  and  accomplished  sister,  exerted 
in  many  ways  a  powerful  and  permanent  influence  for  good.  His 
works,  in  8  vols.,  octavo,  have  been  edited  by  his  successor.  Bishop 
Reynolds.  They  are  marked  by  great  ability  and  candor,  and  not 
unfrequently  exhibit  passages  of  noble  and  impassioned  eloquence. 
EXTRACT. 

Honor  is  the  acquisition  and  preservation  of  the  dignity  of  our 
nature :  that  dignity  consists  in  its  perfection ;  that  perfection  is 
found  in  observing  the  laws  of  our  Creator.      On  Duelling. 


THEODORE  PARKER.  1810-1860. 
Theodore  Parker  was  a  rationalistic  clergyman  of  Boston. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  his  theology,  it  must  be  conceded 
that  he  was  a  daring  and  original  thinker,  a  determined  advocate 
of  human  rights,  a  despiser  of  shams  and  pretence,  whether  in 
Church  or  State,  and  a  vigorous  and  brilliant  writer.  His  col- 
lected works  fill  12  volumes. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 
In  this  country  every  one  gets  a  mouthful  of  education,  but 
scarcely  any  one  a  full  meal. 

II. 
Let  men  laugh  when  you  sacrifice  desire  to  duty  if  they  will. 
You  have  time  and  eternity  to  rejoice  in. 


The  books  which  help  you  most  are  those  which  make  you 
think  most.  The  hardest  way  of  learning  is  by  easy  reading ;  but 
a  great  book  that  comes  from  a  great  thinker, — it  is  a  ship  of 
thought,  deep  freighted  with  truth  and  with  beauty. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  103 

BEECHER.  1813-  /  "^^7  '^'^'-^^^  * 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  pastor  of  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 
is  the  most  gifted  pulpit  orator  in  this  country,  probably  in  the 
world.  He  is  the  author  of  Star  Papers^  Eyes  and  Ears,  Nor- 
wood (a novel),  Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching  (an  admirable  work), 
several  volumes  of  Sermons,  and  a  variety  of  other  works. 

EXTRACTS. 
I. 

Of  all  music,  that  which  reaches  farthest  into  heaven  is  the 
beating  of  a  loving  heart. 

II. 

In  this  world  it  is  not  what  we  take  up,  but  what  we  give  up 
that  makes  us  rich. 

III. 

There  are  many  troubles  which  you  cannot  cure  by  the  Bible 
and  hymn-book,  but  which  you  can  cure  by  a  good  perspiration 
and  a  breath  of  fresh  air. 

IV. 

Some  men  will  not  shave  on  Sunday,  and  yet  they  spend  all 
the  week  in  shaving  their  fellow-men ;  and  many  folks  think  it 
very  wicked  to  black  their  boots  on  Sunday  morning,  yet  they  do 
not  hesitate  to  black  their  neighbor's  reputation  on  week-days. 


ADDISON  ALEXANDER.   1809-1860. 
Joseph  Addison  Alexander,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  the  Princeton 
Theological    Seminary,  was  the  ablest  of   the  great    Alexander 
family.    He  was  acquainted  with  twenty-five  languages,  and  spoke 
and  wrote  many  of  them  with  fluency.     He  was  also  a  voluminous 
writer.     Besides  his   contributions  to  the  Princeton   Review,  he 
published    eight    volumes    of    Commentaries,    two    volumes    of 
Sermons,  and  other  works.     Among  his  popular  poetical  produc- 
tions are  The  Doomed  Man  and  the  sonnet  in  Monosyllabics. 
EXTRACT. 
There  is  a  time, we  know  not  when, 

A  point,  we  know  not  where. 
That  marks  the  destiny  of  man 

To  glory  or  despair.  The  Doo??ied  Man. 


104  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  OF  THISAGE. 

HISTORICAL. 

Jared  Sparks  (1794-1866),  editor  of  American  Biography,  25  vols.,  and 
author  of  Life  of  Washington,  Life  of  Franklin,  and  various  other  works. 

S.  Austin  Allibonk,  LL.  D.  (1816-  ),  author  of  Dictionary  of  Authors, 
an  immense  and  valuable  work  in  three  large  volumes.  Poetical  Quotations, 
and  Prose  Quotations. 

James  Parton  (1822-  ),  a  popular  biographer  and  essayist,  author  of 
Life  of  Jackson,  Life  of  Franklin,  Life  of  Jeflferson,  Famous  Americans,  Peo- 
ple's Book  of  Biography,  etc. 

Horace  Greeley  (1811-1872),  founder  of  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  a  great  editor 
and  reformer,  and  author  of  The  American  Conflict,  2  vols.,  Recollections  of 
a  Busy  Life,  etc. 

Francis  Parkman  (1823-  ),  an  historian  of  high  rank,  author  of  The 
Conspiracy  of  Poniiac,  The  Jesuits  in  America,  The  Discovery  of  the  Great 
West,  The  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,  etc. 

'  Benson  J.  Lossing  (1813-  ),  author  of  Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the 
Revolution,  History  of  the  War  of  1812,  Pictorial  History  of  the  Civil  War, 
etc. 

George  Ticknor  (1791-1871),  a  man  of  wide  culture.  Professor  in  Harvard 
College  (Longfellow's  predecessor),  author  of  History  of  Spanish  Literature, 
and  of  the  Life  of  Prescott. 

John  Gilmary  Shea,  LL.  D.  (1824-  ),  author  of  History  of  Catholic 
Missions  among  the  Indian  Tribes,  The  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States,  Legendary  History  of  Ireland,  etc. ;  also  translator,  editor,  and  com- 
piler of  many  valuable  works. 

Richard  Hildreth  (1807-1865),  author  of  a  valuable  History  of  the 
United  States,  in  6  vols.,  8vo. 

FICTITIOUS. 

Wm.  Gilmore  Simms,  LL.  D.  (1806-1870),  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  a  prolific 
and  popular  writer,  author  of  The  Partisan,  The  Yemassee,  Guy  Rivers,  etc. 
(novels);  History  of  South  Carolina,  Life  of  Marion,  Life  of  John  Smith,  etc.; 
also  Atlantis,  Lays  of  the  Palmetto,  and  other  poems. 

Miss  C.  M.  Sedgwick  (i  789-1867;,  author  of  Hope  Leslie,  Redwood,  and 
many  other  novels  and  tales. 

Mrs.  Lydia  Maria  Child  (1802-  ),  a  prolific  and  popular  writer,  author 
of  Frugal  Housewife,  The  Mother's  Book,  The  Girl's  Book,  Lives  of  Madame 
de  Stacl,  Madame  Roland,  etc..  Biography  of  Good  Wives,  Condition  of 
Women  in  All  Ages,  Romance  of  the  Republic,  etc. 

Mrs.  Emily  Judson,  "Fanny  Forrester''  (1817-1854),  third  wife  of  Dr. 
Judson,  the  missionary,  author  of  Alderbrook,  Life  of  Sarah  C.  Judson,  an 
Olio  of  Domestic  Verses,  and  several  stories  for  children. 


...,:(f 


NATIONAL  AGE.  105 

John  Esten  Cooke  (1830-  ),  an  eminent  Southern  writer,  author  of 
The  Virginia  Comedians,  Henry  St.  John,  Surry  of  Eagle's  Nest,  Lives  of 
Generals  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson,  etc. 

Edward  Everett  Hale  (1822-  ),  a  Boston  clergyman,  author  of  many 
novels,  among  them  The  Man  without  a  Country,  My  Double,  etc.;  If,  Yes, 
and  Perhaps,  The  Ingham  Papers,  Ten  Times  One,  etc.,  etc. 

T.S.  Arthur  (1809-  ),  author  of  Ten  Nights  in  a  Bar-Room  ;  Sketches 
of  Life  and  Character ;  Lights  and  Shadows  of  Real  Life  ;  Advice  to  Young 
Men ;  Advice  to  Young  Women  :  Maiden,  Wife,  and  Mother,  etc. 

Mrs.  Sara  J.  Lippincott,  "  Grace  Greenwood"  (1823-  ),  a  lively  news- 
paper correspondent,  and  a  graceful  story  writer,  author  of  Greenwood  Leaves, 
Record  of  Five  Years,  Haps  and  Mishaps  of  a  Tour  in  Europe,  Poems,  etc. 

Mrs.  Louise  Chandler  Moulton  (1835-  ),  a  vivacious  and  sparkling 
writer,  author  of  This,  That,  and  the  Other,  Bed-time  Stories,  Some  Men's 
Wives,  etc. 

Miss  Louise  M.  Alcott  (1832-  ),  a  very  popularstory  writer,  author  of 
Little  Women,  Old-Fashioned  Girl,  Little  Men,  Work,  Morning  Glories,  etc. 
The  sale  of  these  books  has  been  immense. 

Caroline  Chesebro  (  -1873),  author  of  Dream  of  Land  by  Daylight, 
Victoria,  The  Foe  in  the  Household,  etc. 

Mrs.  Mary  J.  Holmes  has  written  many  popular  novels  and  tales,  among 
them  Lena  Rivers,  Darkness  and  Daylight,  Tempest  and  Sunshine,  etc. 

Mrs.  Terhune,  "Marion  Harland,"  is  the  author  of  Alone,  The  Hidden 
Path,  and  other  popular  works.  She  is  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  E.  P.  Terhune, 
of  Newark,  N.  J. 

Mrs.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson  is  a  novelist  of  great  power  and  originality. 
^Her  most  popular  works  are  Beulah,  Macaria,  St.  Elmo,  and  Infelice. 

Mrs.  a.  D.  T.  Whitney  (1824-  ),  a  popular  novelist  and  poetess,  au- 
thor of  Faith  Gartney's  Girlhood,  The  Gayworthys,  We  Girls,  etc. 

Mrs.  Mary  Clemmer  Ames,  a  vivacious  and  interesting  writer,  author  of 
Eirene,  His  Two  Wives,  Memorial  of  Alice  and  Phoebe  Cary,  Poem.s,  etc. 
Having  been  divorce^,  she  has  lately  resumed  her  maiden  name,  Mary 
Clemmer. 

J.  T.  Trowbridge  (1827-  ),a  novelist  and  poet,  author  of  Brighthope 
Series,  Neighbor  Jackwood,  Coupon  Bonds,  and  other  stories,  and  Poems. 
Some  of  his  poems,  e.  g.,  Darius  Green  and  the  Flying  Machine,  The  Vaga- 
bonds, The  Charcoal  Man,  and  Farmer  John,  have  been  very  popular, 
V  Edv/ard  Eggleston,  D.  D.  (1837-  ),  is  the  author  of  four  very  popular 
stories, — The  Hoosier  Schoolmaster,  The  End  of  the  World,  Mystery  of 
Metropolisville,  and  the  Circuit  Rider,     /if/ 

Mrs.  Mary  A.  Sadlier  (^1820-  ),  a  popular  Catholic  writer,  author  of 
many  Sunday-school  books  and  novels.  Among  the  latter  are  Alice  Riordan, 
Blakes  and  Flanagans,  Red  Hand  of  Ulster,  Willie  Burke,  etc.,  etc. 


106  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

POLITICAL  AND  SCIENTIFIC. 

Charles  Sumner  (1811-1874),  late  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  a  profound 
>cholar,  pure  statesman,  great  orator,  and  champion  of  freedom.  Author  of 
The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,  The  Barbarism  of  Slavery,  and  other  great 
orations  and  speeches. 

Dr.  John  W.  Draper  (1811-  ),  Prof,  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  oi 
New  York,  author  of  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe, 
History  of  the  American  Civil  War,  The  Conflict  of  Science  and  Religion, 
and  of  many  scientific  works. 

Hon.  George  P.  Marsh  (1801-  ),  author  of  Lectures  on  the  English 
Language,  History  of  the  English  Language,  and  Man  and  Nature.  His 
works  on  Language  are  among  the  most  valuable  ever  written. 
/  W.  D.  Whitney,  LL.D.  (1827-  ),  Prof,  in  Yale  College,  one  of  the  best 
oriental  scholars  of  the  age,  author  of  Language  and  the  Science  of  Language, 
a  very  valuable  work. 

Alexander  H.  Everett  (1792-1847),  brother  of  Edward  Everett,  a  states- 
man and  diplomatist,  author  of  State  of  Europe,  State  of  America,  etc. 

Francis  Wayland,  D.  D.,  LL.D.  (1796-1865),  President  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, author  of  Moral  Science,  Intellectual  Philosophy,  Political  Econ- 
omy, etc. 

James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.D.  (1811-  ),  President  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege, one  of  the  greatest  living  metaphysicians,  author  of  the  Method  of 
Divine  Government,  The  Intuitions  of  the  Mind,  Mill's  Philosophy,  Logic, 
Christianity  and  PositivLsm,  and  other  works.  He  is  a  Scotchman;  came  to 
this  country  in  1868. 

Horace  Mann  (1796-1859),  a  distinguished  educator,  author  of  Lectures 
on  Education,  Report  of  an  Educational  Tour  in  Germany,  Great  Britain,  etc., 
A  Few  Thoughts  for  a  Young  Man  on  Entering  Life,  and  other  works. 

critical  and  miscellaneous. 

Margaret  Fuller,  Countess  d'Ossoli  (1810-1850),  a  brilliant  writer  on  art 
and  literature.  She  was  drowned,  with  husband  and  child,  on  her  way  home 
from  Italy. 

Henry  Reed,  LL.  D.  (1808-1854),  Professor  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, editor  of  Wordsworth's  Works,  etc.,  and  author  of  four  volumes  of 
delightful  lectures  on  English  Poets,  English  Literature,  and  English  History 
as  Illustrated  by  Shakspeare's  Historical  Plays. 

Rufus  W.  Griswold,  D.  D.  (1815-1857),  author  of  Female  Poets  of  Amer- 
ica, Prose  Writers  of  America,  and  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America, 

Duyckinck  Brothers,  (E.  A.,  1816-  ;  G.  L.,  1823-1863),  authors  of  a 
very  valuable  woik.  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature  (recently  revised  by 
Mr.  Simon). 

Miss  Mary  Abigail  Dodge,  "Gail  Hamilton"  (1838-  ),  a  piquant  and 
original  writer,  author  of  A  New  Atmosphere,  Gala  Days,  Country  Living. 


NATIONAL  AGE.  107 

Geo.  W.  Curtis  (1824-  ),  the  genial  editor  of  Harper' s  Monthly  and 
Harper's  Weekly,  author  of  Nile  Notes  of  a  Howadji,  The  Potiphar  Papers, 
Pnie  and  I,  Trumps,  etc. 

W.  D.  HowELLS  (1837-  ),  editor  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.^  one  of  the  finest 
of  living  American  writers,  author  of  Venetian  Life,  Suburban  Sketches,  Our 
Wedding  Journey,  A  Chance  Acquaintance,  A  Foregone  Conclusion,  Private 
Theatricals,  novels  ;  a  volume  of  Poems,  etc. 

Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Sigourney  (1791-1865),  a  noble  woman  and  excellent 
writer,  both  of  poetry  and  prose.  Author  of  Letters  to  Young  Ladies,  Letters 
to  My  Pupils,  Letters  to  Mothers,  Past  Meridian,  Letters  of  Life,  etc.,  prose 
works  ;  and  Indian  Names,  Death  of  an  Infant,  etc.,  poems. 

Donald  G.  Mitchell,  "  Ik  Marvel"  (1822-  ),  a  genial,  graceful  wri- 
ter, author  of  Dream  Life,  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,  My  Farm  at  Edgewood, 
Seven  Stories,  etc. 

"  Fanny  Fern,"  Mrs.  Jas.  Parton  (1811-1872),  a  witty  and  spicy  writer  of 
sketches  and  tales,  author  of  Fern  Leaves,  Little  Ferns,  Folly  as  it  Flies, 
Ginger  Snaps,  etc.,  made  up  of  short  sketches  ;  also  two  novels,  Ruth  Hall 
and  Rose  Clark. 

Orestes  A.  Brownson,  LL.  D.  (1803-1876),  a  vigorous  and  brilliant  Catho- 
lic writer,  &^\\.ox  oi  Brownson' s  Quarterly^  author  of  Charles  El  wood,  or  the 
Infidel  Converted  ;  The  Covenant,  or  Leaves  from  My  Experience,  etc. 

theological.* 

E.  H.  Chapin,  D.  D.  (1814-  ),  of  New  York,  a  Universalist  preacher  of 
great  genius  and  eloquence,  author  of  Hours  of  Communion,  Characters  in  the 
Gospel,  Christianity  the  Perfection  of  True  Manliness,  etc.     (See  p.  iv.) 

John  McClintock,  D.  D.,  LL.D.  (1814-1870),  a  learned  and  eminent 
Methodist  minister,  President  of  Drew  Theological  Seminary,  author  of  sev- 
eral school  books,  and  joint  author  with  Dr.  Strong  of  the  great  Theological 
and  Biblical  Cyclopaedia  now  in  course  of  publication. 

Rt.  Rev.  C.  P.  McIlvaine,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  D.C.  L.  (1798-1873),  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Ohio,  author  of  Evidences  of  Christianity,  etc. 

Rev.  Charles  Hodge,  D.  D.,  LL.D.  (1797-  ),  Professor  in  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  at  Princeton,  author  of  Systematic  Theology,  the  greatest 
work  of  the  kind  ever  produced  in  this  country. 

Rev.  Albert  Barnes  (i 798-1870),  noted  chiefly  as  the  author  of  Barnes's 
Notes  on  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.  D.(i82i-  ),  the  learned  and  eloquent  pastor  of  the 
Church  of  the  Pilgrims,  Brooklyn,  author  of  The  Constitution  of  the  Human 
Soul,  and  many  lectures  and  addresses. 

♦Archbishop  Kenrick,  Archbishop  Bayley,  Dr.  Hackett,  and  many  other 
eminent  divines,  are  omitted  from  this  list,  because  their  writings,  being 
mainly  theological,  do  not  properly  belong  to  general  literature. 


108  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Most  Rev.  Martin  John  Spalding,  D.  D.  (1810-1872),  late  Archbishop 
of  Baltimore,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  Catholic  prelates,  authorof  A  Review 
of  D'Aubigne's  History  of  the  Reformation,  Evidences  of  Catholicity,  Smith- 
sonian Lectures  on  Modern  Civilization,  etc. 

Most  Rev.  John  Hughes,  D.  D.  (1797-1864),  late  Archbishop  of  NewYork, 
a  man  of  great  energy  and  ability,  widely  known  on  account  of  his  controver- 
sies with  Dr.  Breckenridge  and  Erastus  Brooks,  his  Lecture  on  Christianity 
(delivered  in  Washington,  by  request  of  Congress),  etc. 

Philip  Schaff,  D.  D.  (1 819-  ),  the  learned  American  editor  of  Lange's 
Commentary,  author  of  America,  Germany,  History  of  the  Christian 
Church,  The  Anglo-American  Sabbath,  The  Person  of  Christ,  etc, 

Charles  P.  Krauth,  D.  D.  (1823-  ),  Prof,  of  Intellectual  and  Moral 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  author  of  The  Conservative 
Reformation,  Sketch  or' the  Thirty  Years'  War   etc. 

HUMOROUS. 

"  Artemus  Ward,"  Chas.  F.  Browne  (7836-1867),  a  very  celebrated 
humorist,  author  of  Artemus  Ward,  his  Book,  Artemus  Ward  Among  the 
Mormons,  Artemus  Ward  Among  the  Fenians,  and  Artemus  Ward  in  Eng- 
land. 

"  Mrs.  Partington,"  Mr.  P.  B.  Shillaber  (1814-  ),  author  of  Life  and 
Sayings  of  Mrs.  Partington,  Knitting  Work,  etc. 

"Josh  Billings,"  H.W.Shaw  (1818-  ),  author  of  Sayings  of  Josn 
Billings,  Josh  Billings  on  Ice,  Farmer's  Alminax,  etc.  Very  witty  and  wise, 
but  not  always  refined. 

Charles  Dudley  Warner  (1829-  ),  a  genial  and  refined  writer,  author 
of  My  Summer  in  a  Garden,  Back-log  Studies,  Baddeck  and  that  Sort  of 
Thing,  and  joint  author  with  Mark  Twain  of  the  Gilded  Age. 

"  Mark  Twain,"  Samuel  L.  Clemens  (1835-  ),  the  most  distinguished 
of  living  humorists,  author  of  Innocents  Abroad,  Roughing  It,  The  Gilded 
Age  (jointly  with  Warner),  Tom  Sawyer  (a  novel),  etc. 

Charles  G.  Leland  (Hans  Breitmann),  C.  H.  Webb  (John  Paul),  Jambs 
M.  Bailey  (Danbury  News  Man),  D.  R.  Locke  (Petroleum  V.  Nasby), 
Melville  D.  Landon  (Eli  Perkins),  and  R.  H.  Newell  (Orpheus  C.  Kerr 
— office-seeker),  are  also  noted  humorists. 


English  Contemporaries. 
This  age  in  American  Literature  is  coextensive  with  the  Victorian  age  in 
English  Literature,  represented  by  Tennyson,  Macaulay,  and  others. 


PART    III. 
A  CASKET  OF  THOUGHT-GEMS. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS. 

America. '\  I. 

Westward  the  course"^  of  empire  takes  its  way ; 

The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day ; 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last. 

Bp.  Berkeley. 

Truth.-]  II. 

I  do  not  know  what  I  may  appear  to  the  world,  but  to  myself 
I  seem  to  have  been  only  like  a  boy  playing  on  the  sea- shore,  and. 
diverting  myself  in  now  and  then  finding  a  smoother  pebble  or  a 
prettier  shell  than  ordinary,  whilst  the  great  ocean  of  truth  lay  all. 
undiscovered  before  me.  Sir  Isaac  Newton.. 

Opportunity.]  III. 

There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men. 

Which,  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune; 

Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  life 

Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries. 

Shak.:  Julius  CcBsar. 
Education.]  IV. 

A  Bible  and  a  newspaper  in  every  house,  a  good  school  in  every- 
district, — all  studied  and  appreciated  as  they  merit, — are  the  prin- 
cipal  support  of  virtue,  morality,  and  civil  liberty.     Frankun. 

Virtue.]  V. 

Mortals  that  would  follow  me, 
Love  Virtue ;  she  alone  is  free ; 
She  can  teach  ye  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime ; 
Or  if  Virtue  feeble  were. 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her. 

Milton:  Comus^. 

*  Often  quoted  "  star  of  empire." 

(109) 


110  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Independence?^  VI. 

These   two  things,  contradictory  as  they  may  seem,  must  go 

together, — manly    dependence  and  manly    independence,  manly 
reliance  and  manly  self-reliance.  Wordsworth. 

Death.-\  VII. 

But  whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 

Or  in  the  battle's  van, 
The  fittest  place  where  man  can  die 

Is  where  he  dies  for  man.  m.  F.  Barry. 

Calumny.']  VIII. 

To  persevere  in  one's  duty  and  to  be  silent  is  the  best  answer 
to  calumny.  Washington, 

The  Good  Time  Coming.]  IX. 

Then  let  us  pray  that  come  it  may, 

As  come  it  will  for  a'  that, 
That  sense  and  worth  o'er  a'  the  earth 
May  bear  the  gree  and  a'  that. 
For  a'  that  and  a'  that, 
It's  coming  yet,  for  a'  that. 
When  man  to  man,  the  warld  o'er. 
Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that. 

Burns  :  Honest  Poverty, 
Schools.]  X. 

School-houses  are  the  republican  line  of  fortifications. 

Horace  Mann, 
Teaching:  ]  XI. 

Delightful  task  !  to  rear  the  tender  thought. 
To  teach  the  young  idea  how  to  shoot. 
To  pour  the  fresh  instruction  o'er  the  mind. 
To  breathe  the  enlivening  spirit,  and  to  fix 
The  generous  purpose  in  the  glowing  breast. 

Thomson  :   The  Seasons. 
Teaching.]  XII. 

If  we  work  upon  marble,  it  will  perish ;  if  we  work  upon  brass, 
time  will  efface  it ;  if  we  rear  temples,  they  will  crumble  into  dust; 
but  if  we  work  upon  immortal  minds,  if  we  imbue  them  with 
principles,  with  the  just  fear  of  God  and  love  of  our  fellow-men, 
we  engrave  on  those  tablets  something  which  will  brighten  to  all 
eternity.  Webster. 

Learning.]  XIII. 

Do  you  covet  learning's  prize  ? 

Climb  her  heights  and  take  it. 
In  ourselves  our  fortune  lies  ; 

Life  is  what  we  make  it.  *»* 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS,  \\\ 

Ltfe.-\  XIV. 

Life  is  a  casket  not  precious  in  itself,  but  valuable  in  proportion 
to  what  fortune,  or  industry,  or  virtue  has  placed  within  it. 

Landor. 

Self-reliance,-\  XV. 

The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars. 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings. 

Shak.:  Julius  Ccesar. 

Life.l  XVI. 

It  is  faith  in  something  and  enthusiasm  for  something  that  makes 
a  life  worth  looking  at.  Holmes. 

Life.-\  XVII. 

We  live  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  thoughts, not  breaths ; 
In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs ;  he  most  lives. 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best. 

P.  J.  Bailey  :  Festus. 

Benevolence. '\  XVIII. 

An  effort  made  for  the  happiness  of  others  lifts  us  above  ourselves. 

Mrs.  L.  M.  Child. 
Self-improvement. 1  XIX. 

I  hold,  in  truth,  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things. 

Tennyson  :  In  Memoriam, 
Determination.^  XX. 

If  there  is  anything  that  ought  to  be  said,  say  it ;  if  there  is  any- 
thing that  ought  to  be  done,  do  it.  What  a  man  wills  to  do  he 
will  do.  ^^^ 

Truthfulness.-\  XXI. 

Dare  to  be  true ;  nothing  can  need  a  lie ; 

A  fault  which  needs  it  most  grows  two  thereby. 

George  Herbert. 
Moral  Courage.^  XXII. 

Dare  to  say  No.  To  refuse  to  do  a  bad  thing  is  to  do  a  good 
«"^-  *** 

Self-improvement.]  XXIII. 

Heaven  is  not  gained  at  a  single  bound ; 
But  we  build  the  ladder  by  which  we  rise 
From  the  lowly  earth  to  the  vaulted  skies, 
^  And  we  mount  to  its  summit  round  by  round. 


112  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

I  count  this  thing  to  be  grandly  true, 

That  a  noble  deed  is  a  step  toward  God, 
Lifting  the  soul  from  the  common  sod 

To  purer  air  and  a  broader  view. 

We  rise  by  things  that  are  'neath  our  feet ; 

By  what  we  have  mastered  of  good  and  gain; 

By  the  pride  deposed  and  the  passion  slain, 
And  the  vanquished  ills  that  we  hourly  meet. 

J.  G.  Holland, 

Man.\  XXIV. 

Man  is  the  jewel  of  God,  who  has  created  this  material  world 
to  keep  his  treasure  in.  Theodore  Parkej^. 

Self-improvement.'X  XXV. 

The  heights  by  great  men  reached  and  kept 

Were  not  attained  by  sudden  flight ; 

But  they,  while  their  companions  slept. 

Were  toiling  upwards  in  the  light. 

Longfellow  :  Ladder  of  St.  Augustine, 

Schools.-l  XXVI. 

Jails  and  state  prisons  are  the  complement  of  schools ;  so  many 
less  as  you  have  of  the  latter,  so  many  more  you  must  have  of  the 
former.  Horace  Mann. 

Integrity.-]  XXVII. 

The  thing  most  specious  cannot  stead  the  true; 
Who  would  appear  clean  must  be  clean  all  through. 

Alice  Gary  :    The  Might  of  Truth. 

Leisure  and  Laziness.]  XXVIII. 

Leisure  is  time  for  doing  something  useful;  this  leisure  the 
diligent  man  will  obtain,  but  the  lazy  man  never;  so  that,  as  Poor 
Richard  says,  a  life  of  leisure  and  a  life  of  laziness  are  two  things. 

Franklin. 

All  Good  Costs.]  XXIX. 

For  strength  is  born  of  struggle,  faith  of  doubt, 
Of  discord  law,  and  freedom  of  oppression  : 
We  hail  from  Pisgah,  with  exulting  shout, 
The  promised  land  below  us,  bright  with  sun, 
And  deem  its  pastures  won, 
Ere  toil  and  blood  have  earned  us  the  possession ! 
Each  aspiration  of  our  human  earth 
Becomes  an  act  through  keenest  pangs  of  birth ; 
Each  force,  to  bless,  must  cease  to  be  a  dream. 
And  conquer  life  through  agony  supreme ; 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS.  113 

Each  inborn  right  must  outwardly  be  tested 

By  stern  material  weapons,  ere  it  stand 

In  the  enduring  fabric  of  the  land, 
Secured  for  those  who  yielded  it,  and  those  who  wrested. 
Bayard  Taylor  :  Gettysburg  Ode. 

Hotnes.'\  XXX. 

The  strength  of  a  nation,  especially  of  a  republican  nation,  is 
in  the  intelligent  and  well-ordered  homes  of  its  people. 

Mrs.  Sigourney, 

Flower5.-\  XXXI. 

Your  voiceless  lips,  O  flowers,  are  living  preachers, 
Each  cup  a  pulpit  and  each  leaf  a  book, 

Supplying  to  m.y  fancy  numerous  teachers. 

From  loneliest  nook.  Horace  Smith. 

Flowers:^  XXXII. 

How  the  universal  heart  of  man  blesses  flowers!  They  are 
wreathed  round  the  cradle,  the  marriage  altar, and  the  tomb.  The 
Persian  in  the  far  East  delights  in  their  perfume,  and  writes  his 
love  in  nosegays ;  while  the  Indian  child  of  the  far  West  claps 
his  hands  with  glee  as  he  gathers  the  abundant  blossoms, — the 
illuminated  scriptures  of  the  prairies.  Mrs.  L.  M.  Child. 

Flowers.-\  XXXIII. 

We  tread  through  fields  of  speckled  flowers, 

As  if  we  did  not  know 
Our  Father  made  them  beautiful 
Because  he  loves  us  so. 

Alice  Gary  :  yanuary. 

Flowers.]  XXXIV. 

Flowers  are  the  sweetest  things  that  God  ever  made  and  forgot 
to  put  a  soul  into.  Beecher. 

God's  Love.]  XXXV. 

There  's  not  a  flower  that  decks  the  vale, 

There  's  not  a  beam  that  lights  the  mountain, 
There 's  not  a  shrub  that  scents  the  gale, 

There  's  not  a  wind  that  stirs  the  fountain, 
There 's  not  a  hue  that  paints  the  rose. 

There's  not  a  leaf  around  us  lying, 
But  in  its  use  or  beauty  shows 

True  love  to  us,  and  love  undying.    Gerald  Griffin. 


114  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Culture. l  XXXVI. 

Literary  culture  is  mental  horticulture  :  it  joins  beauty  to  utility, 
and  gives  fertility,  harmony,  and  completeness  to  the  mind  of  its 
possessor.  -x-  *  -Sf* 

Words.l  XXXVII. 

Words  are  mighty,  words  are  living ; 

Serpents  with  their  venomous  stings, 
Or  bright  angels  crowding  round  us 

With  heaven's  light  upon  their  wings ; 
Every  word  has  its  own  spirit. 

True  or  false,  that  never  dies ; 
Every  word  man's  lips  have  uttered. 
Echoes  in  God's  skies. 

Adelaide  Proctor  :  Words. 

Brevity.\  XXXVIII. 

If  you  would  be  pungent,  be  brief;  for  it  is  with  words  as  with 
sunbeams — the  more  they  are  condensed,  the  deeper  they  burn. 

SOUTHEY. 

Words,-]  XXXIX. 

But  M^ords  are  things  ;  and  a  small  drop  of  ink. 

Falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought,  produces 

That  which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  think. 

Byron  :  Don  yuan. 
Falsehood.^  XL. 

A  lie  which  is  all  a  lie  may  be  met  and  fought  with  outright; 
But  a  lie  which  is  half  a  truth  is  a  harder  matter  to  fight. 

Tennyson  :  The  Grandfnother , 

Fa  Isehood.  ]  X  LI . 

Sin  has  many  tools,  but  a  lie  is  the  handle  which  fits  them  all. 

Holmes. 
yudging.l  XLII.  , 

Dear  Lord,  how  little  man's  award 

The  right  or  wrong  attest ! 
And  he  who  judges  least,  I  think, 

Is  he  who  judges  best. 

Alice  Gary  :  The  Best  Judgment. 

Forgiveness. -]  XLIII. 

The  accusing  spirit  which  flew  up  to  heaven's  chancery  with  the 
oath,  blushed  as  he  gave  it  in ;  and  the  recording  angel,  as  he 
wrote  it  down,  dropped  a  tear  upon  the  word,  and  blotted  it  out 
forever.  Sterne  :   Tristram  Shandy, 

Justice. 1  XLIV. 

Justice  is  the  idea  of  God,  the  ideal  of  man,  the  rule  of  conduct 
writ  in  the  nature  of  mankind.  Theodore  Parker. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS.  115 

Integrity. '^  XLV. 

Be  just,  and  fear  not. 

Let  all  the  ends  thou  aimst  at  be  thy  country's, 

Thy  God's,  and  truth's. 

Shak,:  King  Henry  VIII, 
Mercy,]  XLVI. 

The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained — 

It  droppeth,  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven, 

Upon  the  place  beneath  :  it  is  twice  blessed  ; 

It  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes ; 

'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest ;  it  becomes 

The  throned  monarch  better  than  his  crown. 

His  sceptre  shows  the  force  of  temporal  power, 

The  attribute  to  awe  and  majesty, 

Wherein  doth  sit  the  dread  and  fear  of  kings; 

But  mercy  is  above  this  sceptered  sway, — 

It  is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  kings  ; 

It  is  an  attribute  to  God  himself ; 

And  earthly  power  doth  then  show  likest  God's, 

When  mercy  seasons  justice. 

Shakspeare  :  T/te  Merchant  of  Venice. 

Worth.\  XLVII. 

In  this  world  there  is  one  godlike  thing,  the  essence  of  all  that 
ever  was  or  ever  will  be  of  godlike  in  this  world, — the  veneration 
done  to  human  worth  by  the  hearts  of  men.  Carlyle. 

Death.]  XLVIII. 

They  never  fail  who  die 
In  a  great  cause.     The  block  may  soak  their  gore ; 
Their  heads  may  sodden  in  the  sun ;  their  limbs 
Be  strung  to  city  gates  or  castle  walls ; 
But  still  their  spirit  walks  abroad.     Though  years 
Elapse,  and  others  share  as  dark  a  doom. 
They  but  augment  the  great  and  sweeping  thoughts 
That  overspread  all  others,  and  conduct 
The  world  at  last  to  freedom. 

Byron  :  Marino  Faliero. 
Death.]  XLIX. 

I  look  upon  death  to  be  as  necessary  to  our  constitution  as  sleep. 
We  shall  rise  refreshed  in  the  morning.  Franklin. 

Death.]  L. 

Earth,  let  thy  softest  mantle  rest 

On  this  worn  child  to  thee  returning, 
Whose  youth  was  nurtured  at  thy  breast. 
Who  loved  thee  with  such  tender  yearning. 


116  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

He  knew  thy  fields  and  woodland  ways, 
And  deemed  thy  humblest  son  his  brother: 

Asleep,  beyond  our  blame  or  praise , 
We  yield  him  back,  O  gentle  mother ! 

Stedman;  On  the  Death  of  Horace  Greeley. 

Death.]  LI. 

Life  is  rather  a  state  of  embryo,  a  preparation  for  life ;  a  man 
is  not  completely  born  till  he  has  passed  through  death. 

Franklin. 
Earth  and  Heaven.]  LII. 

Here  is  the  sorrow,  the  sighing, 

Here  are  the  cloud  and  the  night; 
Here  is  the  sickness,  the  dying, 
There  are  the  life  and  the  light. 

Here  are  the  heart-strings  a-tremble. 

And  here  is  the  chastening  rod  ; 
There  is  the  song  and  the  cymbal. 

And  there  is  our  Father  and  God. 

Alice  Gary  :  Here  and  There. 

Heaven.]  LII  I. 

We  are  born  for  a  higher  destiny  than  that  of  earth ;  there  is  a 
realm  where  the  rainbow  never  fades,  where  the  stars  will  be 
spread  before  us  like  islands  that  slumber  on  the  ocean,  and  where 
the  beings  that  pass  before  us  like  shadows  will  stay  in  our  pres- 
ence forever.  Bulwer-Lytton. 

Im^rovejnent.]  LIV. 

Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul. 
As  the  swift  seasons  roll ! 
Leave  the  low-vaulted  past; 
Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free. 
Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life's  unresting  sea. 
O.  W.  Holmes:   The  Chambered  Nautilus. 

Life.]  LV. 

Life,  as  we  call  it,  is  nothing  but  the  edge  of  the  boundless 
ocean  of  existence  when  it  comes  upon  soundings.  Holmes. 

Tribulation.]  LVI. 

The  brighest  crowns  that  are  worn  in  heaven  have  been  tried 
and  smelted  and  polished  and  glorified  through  the  furnace  of 
tribulation.  Chapin. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  117 

Death  for  Country,]  LVII. 

How  sleep  the  brave  who  sink  to  rest. 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blessed! 
When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold, 
Returns  to  deck  their  hallowed  mould. 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung; 

By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung : 

There  Honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 

To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay ; 

And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 

To  dwell,  a  weeping  hermit,  there.  Collins. 

Sorrows.]  LVIII. 

Through  Sorrow's  vale,  by  weary  pilgrims  trod, 

The  pathway  lies  that  leads  us  up  to  God ; 

And  Hope's  bright  bow  most  beautiful  appears 

On  clouded  sky,  beheld  through  falling  tears. 

'Tis  life's  great  lesson,  through  the  ages  taught. 

That  wisdom's  pearl  is  by  experience  bought ; 

Sublimest  joy  is  won  through  fiery  trial. 

And  sweetest  rest  by  toil  and  self  denial.  -x-  -x-  * 

Thought  and  Action.]  LIX. 

It  is  well  to  think  well.     It  is  divine  to  act  well. 

Horace  Mann, 

Patience.]  LX. 

Learn  patience  from  the  lesson  : 

Though  the  night  be  drear  and  long, 
To  the  darkest  sorrow  there  comes  a  morrow, 

A  right  to  every  wrong.  Trowbridge. 

Lucy.]  LXI. 

She  dwelt  among  the  untrodden  ways, 
4  Beside  the  springs  of  Dove, — 

A  maid  whom  there  were  none  to  praise. 
And  very  few  to  love ; 

A  violet  by  a  mossy  stone. 

Half  hidden  from  the  eye, 
Fair  as  a  star  when  only  one 

Is  shining  in  the  sky. 

She  lived  unknown,  and  few  could  know 

When  Lucy  ceased  to  be  ! 
But  she  is  in  her  grave,  and  oh ! 

The  difference  to  me  !  Wordsworth. 


118  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

God  Knoweth  Best,']  LXII. 

I  hear  a  dear  familiar  tone, 

A  loving  hand  clasps  close  my  own, 

And  earth  seems  made  for  me  alone. 

If  I  my  fortunes  could  have  planned, 
I  would  not  have  let  go  that  hand  ; 
But  they  must  fall  who  learn  to  stand. 

And  how  to  blend  life's  varied  hues, 
What  ill  to  find,  what  good  to  lose. 
My  Father  knoweth  best  to  choose. 

Alice  Gary:  A  Dream  of  the  West, 

Contpositioti.^  LXIII. 

It  is  excellent  discipline  for  an  author  to  feel  that  he  must  say 
all  he  has  to  say  in  the  fewest  possible  words,  or  his  reader  is  sure 
to  skip  them  ;  and  in  the  plainest  possible  words,  or  his  reader 
will  certainly  misunderstand  them.  Generally,  also,  a  downright 
fact  may  be  told  in  a  plain  way  ;  and  we  want  downright  facts  at 
the  present  more  than  anything  else.  Ruskin. 

Hope^  Love^  and  Faith.']  LXIV. 

Hope,  only  Hope,  of  all  that  clings 
Around  us,  never  spreads  her  wings ; 
Love,  though  he  break  his  earthly  chain. 
Still  whispers  he  will  come  again  ; 
But  Faith,  that  soars  to  seek  the  sky. 
Shall  teach  our  half-fledged  souls  to  fly. 
And  find,  beyond  the  smoke  and  flame. 
The  cloudless  azure  whence  they  came  ! 

Holmes  :  After  the  Fire, 

Reputation.']  LXV. 

And  whatever  you  lend,  let  it  be  your  money,  and  not  your 
name.  Money  you  may  get  again,  and,  if  not,  you  may  contrive 
to  do  without  it ;  name  once  lost  you  cannot  get  again ;  and  if  you 
contrive  to  do  without  it,  you  had  better  never  have  been  born. 

Bulwer-Lytton. 
Contentment,']  LXVI. 

My  conscience  is  my  crown. 

Contented  thoughts  my  rest ; 
My  heart  is  happy  in  itself, 

My  bliss  is  in  my  breast. 

I  feel  no  care  of  coin, 

Well-doing  is  my  wealth  ; 
My  mind  to  me  an  empire  is. 

While  grace  affordeth  health. 

Southwell  :  Content  and  Rich. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS,  119 

&icnseU\  LXVII. 

Sunset !  a  hush  is  in  the  air, — 

Their  grey  old  heads  the  mountains  bare, 

As  if  the  winds  were  saying  prayer. 

The  woodland,  with  its  broad,  green  wing, 
Shuts  up  the  insect- whispering, 
And  lo !  the  Sea  gets  up  to  sing. 

The  last  red  splendor  fades  and  dies, 
And  shadows  one  by  one  arise 
To  light  the  candles  of  the  skies. 

I  O  wild-flowers,  wet  with  silver  dew ! 

O  woods,  with  starlight  shining  through ! 
My  heart  is  in  the  West  with  you. 

Alice  Gary  :  A  Dream  of  the  West. 

Manners.-]  LXVIII. 

What  a  rare  gift,  by  the  by,  is  that  of  manners  !  how  difficult  to 
define,  how  much  more  difficult  to  impart !  Better  for  a  man  to 
possess  them  than  wealth,  beauty,  or  talent ;  they  will  more  than 
supply  all.  Bulwer-Lytton. 

A  Father's  Tear.]  LXIX. 

Some  feelings  are  to  mortals  given. 

With  less  of  earth  in  them  than  heaven ; 

And  if  there  be  a  human  tear 

From  passion's  dross  refined  and  clear, 

A  tear  so  limpid  and  so  meek 

It  would  not  stain  an  angel's  cheek, — 

'T  is  that  which  pious  fathers  shed 

Upon  a  duteous  daughter's  head. 

Scott  :  Lacfy  of  the  Lake* 
Heaven  and  Earth.']  LXX. 

A  wide,  rich  heaven  hangs  above  you,  but  it  hangs  high.  A 
wide,  rough  world  is  around  you,  and  it  lies  very  low. 

D.  G.  Mitchell. 
Deed  and  Thought.]  LXX  I. 

Whene'er  a  noble  deed  is  wrought. 
Whene'er  is  spoken  a  noble  thought, 

Our  hearts  in  glad  surprise. 

To  higher  levels  rise. 

Longfellow  :  Santa  Filomena, 

Mind.]  LXXn. 

Man  carries  under  his  hat  a  private  theatre,  wherein  a  greater 
drama  is  acted  than  is  ever  performed  on  the  mimic  stage,  begin- 
ning and  ending  in  eternity.  Carlylk. 


120  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Life.]  LXXIII. 

To-morrow,  and  to-morrow,  and  to-morrow, 

Creeps  in  this  petty  pace  from  day  to  day. 

To  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time ; 

And  all  our  yesterdays  have  lighted  fools 

The  way  to  dusty  death.  Shak.:  Macbeth. 

The  Heart. "l  LXXIV. 

A  human  heart  can  never  grow  old,  if  it  takes  a  lively  interest 
in  the  pairing  of  birds,  the  reproduction  of  flowers,  and  the 
changing  tints  of  autumn  leaves.  Mrs.  L.  M.  Child. 

Life.]  LXXV. 

The  shortest  life  is  longest,  if  't  is  best ; 
'Tis  ours  to  work — to  God  belongs  the  rest. 
Our  lives  are  measured  by  the  deeds  we  do, 
The  thoughts  we  think,  the  objects  we  pursue, 
A  fair  young  life  poured  out  upon  the  sod. 
In  the  high  cause  of  freedom  and  of  God, 
Though  all  too  short  his  course  and  quickly  run, 
Is  full  and  glorious  as  the  orbed  sun ; 
While  he  who  lives  to  hoary-headed  age 

Oft  dies  an  infant — dies  and  leaves  no  sign; 
For  he  has  writ  no  deed  on  history's  page, 

And  unfulfilled  is  being's  great  design.  ^  ^  * 

Head  and  Heart.]  LXXVI. 

Nature  is  full  of  freaks,  and  now  puts  an  old  head  on  young 
shoulders,  and  then  a  young  heart  beating  under  fourscore  winters. 

Emerson. 

Life.]  LXXVII. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us, 
We  may  make  our  lives  sublime. 

And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 
Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time. 

Footprints  that  perhaps  another. 

Sailing  o'er  life's  solemn  main, 
A  forlorn  and  shipwrecked  brother. 

Seeing,  may  take  heart  again. 

Let  us,  then,  be  up  and  doing. 

With  a  heart  for  any  fate ; 
Still  achieving,  still  pursuing. 

Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait. 

Longfellow  :  Psalm  of  Life. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  121. 

Liheriy,-\  LXXVIII. 

Give  me  the  centralism  of  liberty  ;  give  me  the  imperialism  of 
equal  rights.  Sumner. 

Freedom.l  LXXIX. 

When   a  deed   is  done  for  freedom,  through  the  broad   earth's 

aching  breast 
Runs  a  thrill  of  joy  prophetic,  trembling 'cm  from  east  to  west. 
And  the  slave,  where'er  he  cowers,  feels  the  soul  within  him  climb- 
To  the  aw.ful  verge  of  manhood,  as  the  energy  sublime 
Of  a  century,  bursts  full-blossomed  on  the  thorny  stem  of  time. 

Lowell  :   The  Present  Crisis. 
Benevolence. '\  LXXX. 

There  is  a  sort  of  virtuous  selfishness  in  benevolence;  for  the 
more  we  live  for  the  good  of  others,  the  more  we  really  benefit, 
ourselves.  *  -je-  * 

Heroism.-]  LXXXI. 

Life  may  be  given  in  many  ways, 
And  loyalty  to  truth  be  sealed 
As  bravely  in  the  closet  as  the  field, 
So  generous  is  fate ; 
But  then  to  stand  beside  her 
When  craven  churls  deride  her. 
To  front  a  lie  in  arms  and  not  to  yield, — 
This  shows,  methinks,  God's  plan 
And  measure  of  a  stalwart  man. 

Lowell  :  Commemoration  Ode. 
Sentiment  and  Science.]  LXXXIL 

It  is  better  to  inspire  the  heart  with  a  noble  sentiment  than  tc 
teach  the  mind  a  truth  of  science.  Edward  Brooks. 

Progress.]  LXXXIH. 

Not  in  vain  the  distance  beacons.    Forward,  forward  let  us  range  ! 

Let  the  great  world  spin  forever  down  the  ringing  grooves  of 

change  ! 
Through  the  shadow  of  the  globe  we  sweep  into  the  younger  day;; 
Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Cathay. 

Tennyson  :  Locksley  Hall. 
Emulation.]  LXXXIV. 

We  should  strive  to  exemplify  in  our  own  lives  what  we  most 
admire  in  others.  -x-  -x-  * 

Living  for  God.]  LXXXV. 

Blessed  are  those  who  die  for  God, 

And  earn  the  martyr's  crown  of  light ; 
Yet  he  who  lives  for  God  may  be 
♦  A  greater  conqueror  in  His  sight. 

5  Adelaide  Proctor  ;  Maximus, 


122  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

God.]  LXXXVI. 

One  and  God  make  a  majority. 

Frederick  Douglass. 
Success.]  LXXXVII. 

All  true,  whole  men  succeed  ;  for  what  is  worth 
Success's  name,  unless  it  be  the  thought, 
The  inward  surety  to  have  carried  out 
A  noble  purpose  to  a  noble  end, 
Although  it  be  the  gallows  or  the  block? 

Lowell  :  A  Glance  behind  the  Curtain. 

Truth.]  LXXXVIIl. 

Truth  is  as  impossible  to  be  soiled  by  any  outward  touch  as  the 
sunbeam.  Milton. 

Manhood.]  LXXXIX. 

For  manhood  is  the  one  immortal  thing 

Beneath  time's  changeful  sky  ; 
And  where  it  lightened  once,  from  age  to  age, 
Men  came  to  learn  in  grateful  pilgrimage. 
That  length  of  days  is  knowing  how  to  die. 

Lowell  :  Lexington  Ode, 
Monument.]  XC. 

No  man  who  needs  a  monument  ever  ought  to  have  one. 

Hawthornb. 
Hope.]  XCL 

Eternal  hope !  when  yonder  spheres  sublime 
Pealed  their  first  notes  to  sound  the  march  of  time, 
Thy  joyous  youth  began,  but  not  to  fade 
When  all  the  sister  planets  are  decayed. 
When,  wrapt  in  fire,  the  realms  of  ether  glow. 
And  heaven's  last  thunder  shakes  the  world  below, 
Thou  undismayed  shalt  o'er  the  ruins  smile. 
And  light  thy  torch  at  nature's  funeral  pile. 

Campbell  :  Pleasures  of  Hope. 

Simplicity.]  XCIL 

In  character,  in  manners,  in  style,  in  all  things,  the  supreme 
excellence  is  simplicity.  Longfellow. 

Duties.]  XCIII. 

New  occasions  teach  new  duties ;  time  makes  ancient  good  un- 
couth ; 

They  must  upward  still  and  onward,  who  would  keep  abreast  of 
truth.  Lowell:  The  Present  Crisis. 

Education.]  XCIV. 

Education  gives  power ;  hence  it  is  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  accord 

ing  to  how  we  use  it.  *^^ 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS.  123 

Trust  in  God.}  XCV. 

I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 

Of  marvel  or  surprise, 
Assured  aloue  that  life  and  death 

His  mercy  underlies. 

And  so  beside  the  Silent  Sea 

I  wait  the  muffled  oar ; 
No  harm  from  Him  can  come  to  me, 

On  ocean  or  on  shore. 

I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air ; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 

Beyond  His  love  and  care. 

Whittier  :  The  Eternal  Goodness, 

Knowledge.}  XCVI. 

It  is  better  to  know  much  of  a  few  things  than  a  little  of  many 
things.  Edward  Brooks, 

Thought.}  XCVII. 

All  thoughts  that  mould  the  age  begin 
Deep  down  within  the  primitive  soul, 

And  from  the  many  slowly  upward  win 
To  one  who  grasps  the  whole. 

In  his  wide  brain  the  feeling  deep 
That  struggled  on  the  many's  tongue, 

Swells  to  a  tide  of  thought  whose  surges  leap 
O'er  the  weak  thrones  of  wrong. 

Lowell  :  An  Incident  in  a  R.  R.  Car, 

Education.}  XCVIII. 

It  is  not  so  much  in  buying  pictures  as  in  being  pictures,  that 
you  can  encourage  a  noble  school.  The  best  patronage  of  art  is 
not  that  which  seeks  for  the  pleasure  of  sentiment  in  a  vague 
ideality,  nor  for  beauty  of  form  in  a  marble  image,  but  that  which 
educates  your  children  into  living  heroes,  and  binds  down  the 
flights  and  fondnesses  of  the  heart  into  practical  duty  and  faithful 
devotion.  Ruskin. 

Literary  Fame.}  XCIX. 

It  may  be  glorious  to  write 

Thoughts  that  shall  glad  the  two  or  three 
High  souls,  like  those  far  stars  that  come  in  sight 

Once  in  a  century  ; 


124  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

But  better  far  it  is  to  speak 

One  simple  word,  which  now  and  then 

Shall  waken  their  free  nature  in  the  weak 
And  friendless  sons  of  men ; 

To  write  some  earnest  verse  or  line, 

Which,  seeking  not  the  praise  of  art, 
Shall  make  a  clearer  faith  in  manhood  shine 

In  the  untutored  heart. 

He  who  doth  this,  in  verse  or  prose, 

May  be  forgotten  in  his  day, 
But  surely  shall  be  crowned  at  last  with  those 

Who  live  and  speak  for  aye. 

Lowell  :  Incident  in  a  R.  R,  Car, 

Books.]  C. 

A  good  book  is  the  precious  life-blood  of  a  master-spirit,  em 

balmed  and  treasured  up  on  purpose  to  a  life  beyond  life. 

^      ,  ,  ,  Milton. 

Death.}    ^  CI. 

There  is  a  reaper  whose  name  is  Death, 

And,  with  his  sickle  keen, 
He  reaps  the  bearded  grain  at  a  breath, 

And  the  flowers  that  i^row  between. 

Longfellow  :   T/ie  Reaper  and  the  Flowers^ 

Evening.}  CI  I. 

The  day  is  done,  and  the  darkness 

Falls  from  the  wings  of  night. 
As  a  feather  is  wafted  downward 

From  an  eagle  in  his  flight. 

I  see  the  lights  of  the  village 

Gleam  through  the  rain  and  the  mist. 

And  a  feeling  of  sadness  comes  o'er  me 
That  my  soul  cannot  resist ; 

A  feeling  of  sadness  and  longing, 

That  is  not  akin  to  pain. 
And  resembles  sorrow,  only 

As  the  mist  resembles  the  rain. 

Longfellow  :  Day  zV  Done. 

God's  Livery.]  CIIl. 

God's  livery  is  a  very  plain  one;  but  its  wearers  have  good 
reason  to  be  content.  If  it  have  not  so  much  gold-lace  about  it 
as  Satan's,  it  keeps  out  foul  weather  better,  and  is  besides  a  great 
deal  cheaper.  Lowell. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS.  125 

The  BibleJ]  CIV. 

Thou  truest  friend  man  ever  knew, 

Thy  constancy  I've  tried ; 
When  all  were  false,  I  found  thee  true, 

My  counsellor  and  guide. 
The  mines  of  earth  no  treasures  give 

That  could  this  volume  buy; 
In  teaching  me  the  way  to  live. 
It  taught  me  how  to  die. 

Morris  :  My  Mother's  Bible. 
Honesty.']  CV. 

Honesty  is  the  best  policy ;  but  he  who  acts  on  that  principle 
is  not  an  honest  man.  Whately. 

Truth.^  CVI. 

Great  truths  are  portions  of  the  soul  of  man  ; 

Great  souls  are  portions  of  eternity ; 
Each  drop  of  blood  that  e'er  through  true  heart  ran 

With  lofty  message,  ran  for  thee  and  me ; 
For  God's  law,  since  the  starry  song  began. 
Hath  been,  and  still  forevermore  must  be, 
That  every  deed  which  shall  outlast  life's  span, 
Must  goad  the  soul  to  be  erect  and  free. 

Lowell  :  Sonnet  No.  6. 
Education.']  CVII. 

Education  is  the  chief  defence  of  nations.  Burke. 

Doubt.']  CVIII. 

Perplext  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  his  music  out. 
There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt. 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 

Tennyson  :  In  Memoriam. 
Beauty  of  Character ?[  CIX. 

Fine  natures  are  like  fine  poems  ;  a  glance  at  the  first  two  lines 
suffices  for  a  guess  into  the  beauty  that  waits  for  you  if  you  read  on. 

Bulwer-Lytton. 
Faith.]  ex. 

I  falter  where  I  firmly  trod, 

And,  falling  with  my  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  altar-stairs 

Which  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God, 

I  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith,  and  grope. 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff,  and  call 
To  what  I  feel  is  lord  of  all. 

And  faintly  trust  the  larger  hope. 

Tennyson  :  In  Mejnoriant, 


126  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Manners.]  CXI. 

Fine  manners  are  the  mantle  of  fair  minds.  Alcott. 

£ar/y  Death.']  CXII, 

Loveliest  of  lovely  things  are  they 
On  earth,  that  soonest  pass  away; 
The  rose  that  lives  its  little  hour, 
Is  prized  above  the  sculptured  flower ; 
Even  love,  long  tried,  and  cherished  long, 
Becomes  more  tender  and  more  strong 
At  thought  of  that  insatiate  grave, 
From  which  its  yearnings  cannot  save. 

Bryant  :  A  Scene  on  the  Banks  of  the  Hudson. 

Literature:]  CXIII. 

Literature  is  the  immortality  of  speech.  Willmott. 

Age.-^  CXIV. 

I  mourn  no  more  my  vanished  years : 

Beneath  a  tender  rain, 
An  April  rain  of  smiles  and  tears. 
My  heart  is  young  again. 

The  airs  of  spring  may  never  play 

Among  the  ripening  corn. 
Nor  freshness  of  the  flowers  of  May 

Blow  through  the  autumn  morn ; 

Yet  shall  the  blue-eyed  gentian  look 
Through  fringed  lids  to  heaven, 

And  the  pale  aster,  in  the  brook 
Shall  see  its  image  given ; 

The  woods  shall  wear  their  robes  of  praise, 

The  south-wind  softly  sigh. 
And  sweet,  calm  days  in  golden  haze 

Melt  down  the  amber  sky. 

Whittier  :  My  Psalm. 

Method.]  CXV. 

Method  is  the  hinge  of  business,  and  there  is  no  method  with 
out  order  and  punctuality.  Hannah  More. 

Life.]  CXVI. 

Our  little  lives  are  kept  in  equipoise 

By  opposite  attractions  and  desires ; 
The  struggle  of  the  instinct  that  enjoys. 
And  the  more  noble  instinct  that  aspires. 

Longfellow  :  Haunted  Houses, 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  *       127 

CiTnlity,-]  CXVII. 

Civility  costs  nothing,  and  buys  everj'thing. 

Mary  Wortley  Montagu. 
Li/e,]  CXVIII. 

Thanks,  thanks  to  thee,  my  worthy  friend, 

For  the  lesson  thou  hast  taught ! 
Thus  at  the  flaming  forge  of  life 

Our  fortunes  must  be  wrought ; 
Thus  on  its  sounding  anvil  shaped 
Each  burning  deed  and  thought. 

Longfellow  :  The  Village  Blacksmith, 

Manners.']  CXIX. 

Striking  manners  are  bad  manners.  Robert  Hall. 

Love.^  CXX. 

Hid  in  earth's  mines  of  silver. 

Floating  in  clouds  above, 
Ringing  in  Autumn's  tempest. 
Murmured  by  every  dove, — 
One  thought  fills  God's  creation, 
His  own  great  name  of  Love. 

Adelaide  Proctor:   Two  Worlds, 

Affectation.']  CXXI. 

Affectation  hides  three  times  as  many  virtues  as  charity  does 
sins.  Horace  Mann. 

Modesty.-]  CXXH. 

Modesty  seldom   resides  in  a  breast  that  is  not  enriched  with 
nobler  virtues.  Goldsmith. 

Cheer  fulness. -\  CXXHI. 

Do  not  look  for  wrong  and  evil, 
You  will  find  them  if  you  do; 
As  you  measure  for  your  neighbor 
He  will  measure  back  to  you. 

Look  for  goodness,  look  for  gladness, 
You  will  meet  them  all  the  while ; 
If  you  bring  a  smiling  visage 

To  the  glass,  you  meet  a  smile.  Alice  Gary. 

A  Good  Heart.]  CXXIV. 

If  a  good  face  is  a  letter  of  recommendation,  a  good  heart  is  a 
letter  of  credit.  Bulwer-Lytton. 

Love.]  GXXV. 

Why  is  it  so  difficult  to  love  wisely,  so  easy  to  love  too  well  ? 

Miss  Braddon. 


128  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

Heaven.1  CXXVl. 

Go  wing  thy  flight  from  star  to  star, 
From  world  to  luminous  world,  as  far 
As  the  universe  spreads  its  flaming  wall; 
Take  all  the  pleasures  of  all  the  spheres. 
And  multiply  each  through  endless  years, 
One  minute  of  heaven  is  worth  them  all. 

Moore  :  Lalla  Rookk, 

The  Good  Parson.']  CXXVII. 

And  as  a  bird  each  fond  endearment  tries, 
To  tempt  its  new-fledged  offspring  to  the  skies, 
He  tried  each  art,  reproved  each  dull  delay, 
Allured  to  brighter  worlds,  and  led  the  way. 

Goldsmith  :   The  Deserted  Village, 

Intellects.-]  CXXVIII. 

One-story  intellects,  two-story  intellects,  three-story  intellects 
with  skylights.  All  fact-collectors  who  have  no  aim  beyond  their 
facts,  are  one-story  men.  Two-story  men  compare,  reason,  gener- 
alize, using  the  labors  of  the  fact- collectors,  as  well  as  their  own. 
Three-story  men  idealize,  imagine,  predict ;  their  best  illumina- 
tion comes  from  above,  through  the  skylight.  Holmes. 

Life.-]  CXXIX. 

NEVER   AGAIN. 

There  are  gains  for  all  our  losses, 

There  are  balms  for  all  our  pain  ; 
But  when  youth,  the  dream,  departs, 
It  takes  something  from  our  hearts, 
And  it  never  comes  again. 

We  are  stronger,  and  are  better 

Under  manhood's  sterner  reign ; 
Still  we  feel  that  something  sweet 
Followed  youth  with  flying  feet, 

And  will  never  come  again. 

Something  beautiful  is  vanished, 

And  we  sigh  for  it  in  vain ; 
We  seek  it  everywhere. 
On  the  earth  and  in  the  air, 

But  it  never  comes  again.  r.  h.  Stoddard. 

Freedom.']  CXXX. 

Give  me  liberty  to  know,  to  think,  to  believe,  and  to  utter  free- 
ly, according  to  conscience,  above  all  other  liberties.         Milton. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  129 

God  is  Love.  ]  CXX  XI . 

To  find  some  sure  interpreter 

My  spirit  vainly  tries  ; 
I  only  know  that  God  is  love. 
And  know  that  love  is  wise. 

Alice  Gary  :  Lifers  Mystery, 

Beauty.-]  CXXXII. 

Beauty,  like  truth  and  justice,  lives  within  us;  like  virtue,  and 
like  moral  law,  it  is  a  companion  of  the  soul.  Bancroft, 

Evening.]  CXXXIII. 

See  the  broad  sun  forsake  the  skies, 

Glow  on  the  waves  and  downward  glide ; 
Anon  heaven  opens  all  its  eyes, 

And  star-beams  tremble  on  the  tide. 

Rev.  Mather  Byles,  d.  1788. 

Civility.'^  CXXXIV. 

A  man  has  no  more  right  to  say  an  uncivil  thing  than  to  act 
one ;  no  more  right  to  say  a  rude  thing  to  another  than  to  knock 
him  down.  Dr.  s.  Johnson. 

Night.]  CXXXV. 

How  beautiful  this  night !     The  balmiest  sigh 

Which  vernal  zephyrs  breathe  in  Evening's  ear, 

Were  discord  to  the  speaking  quietude 

That  wraps  this  moveless  scene.     Heaven's  ebon  vault, 

Studded  with  stars  unutterably  bright, 

Through  which  the  moon's  unclouded  grandeur  rolls, 

Seems  like  a  canopy  which  Love  hath  spread 

To  curtain  her  sleeping  world. 

Shelley  :  Queen  Mab. 
Maternal  Influence.]  CXX XVI. 

Men  are  what  their  mothers  made  them.  Emerson. 

Woman.]  CXXXVII. 

O  woman  !  in  our  hours  of  ease, 

Uncertain,  coy,  and  hard  to  please. 

And  variable  as  the  shade 

By  the  light  quivering  aspen  made ; 

When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 

A  ministering  angel  thou  !  Scott;  Marmion. 

Mothers.]  CXXXVIII. 

I  think  it  must  somewhere  be  written,  that  the  virtues  of  moth- 
ers shall,  occasionally,  be  visif^d  on  their  children,  as  well  as  the 
sins  of  fathers.       •  Dickens. 

6* 


130  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Woman  and  Man.}  CXXXIX. 

For  woman  is  not  undeveloped  man, 

But  diverse  :  could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 

Sweet  love  were  slain :  his  dearest  bond  is  this, 

Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference. 

Yet  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow ; 

The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man ; 

He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height. 

Nor  lose  the  wrestling  thews  that  throw  the  world; 

She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward  care, 

Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind ; 

Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man, 

Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words. 

Tennyson  :   The  Princess. 

Marriage. "}  CXL. 

The  reason  why  so  few  marriages  are  happy  is  because  young 
ladies  spend  their  time  in  making  nets,  not  in  making  cages. 

Swift. 
New  Year's.^  CXLI. 

Old  Time's  great  clock,that  never  stops, 

Nor  runs  too  fast  nor  slow, 
Hung  up  amid  the  worlds  of  space, 

Where  wheeling  planets  glow. 
Its  dial-plate  the  orbit  vast 

Where  whirls  our  mundane  sphere, — 
Has  pushed  its  pointer  round  again, 

And  struck  another  year.  *  *  ♦ 

Woman.'\  CXLII. 

To  be  a  good  woman  is  better  than  to  be  a  fine  lady.    -J*-  *  * 
Woman.']  CXLIII. 

"  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man ;" 
The  most  perplexing  one,  no  doubt,  is  woman. 

Saxe. 
Loveliness.]  CXLIV. 

Loveliness 
Needs  not  the  foreign  aid  of  ornament. 
But  is,  when  unadorned,  adorned  the  most. 

Thomson  :   The  Seasons. 
Goodness.]  CXLV. 

To  be  good  is  the  mother  of  To  do  good.  -sf  -x-  -x- 

Woman,]  CXLVI. 

Women  know 
The  way  to  rear  up  children  (to  be  just) ; 
They  know  a  simple,  merry,  tender  knack 
Of  tying  sashes,  fitting  baby-shoes. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS. 


131 


And  stringing  pretty  words  that  make  no  sense, 
And  kissing  full  sense  into  empty  words  ; 
Which  things  are  corals  to  cut  life  upon, 
Although  such  trifles. 

Mrs.  Browning  :  Aurora  Leigk. 

Hospitality, \  CXLVII. 

Let  not  the  emphasis  of  hospitality  be  in  bed  and  board ;  but 
let  truth  and  love  and  honor  and  courtesy  flow  in  all  thy  deeds. 

Emerson. 
Spring.-\  CXLVIII. 

Come,  gentle  Spring,  ethereal  mildness, come ; 
And  from  the  bosom  of  yon  dropping  cloud. 
While  music  wakes  around,  veiled  in  a  shower 
Of  shadowing  roses,  on  our  plains  descend. 

Thomson  :   The  Seasons. 
Books.-]  CXLIX. 

The  true  University  of  these  days  is  a  collection  of  books. 

Carlyle. 

Moonlight.]  CL. 

How  sweet  the  moonlight  sleeps  upon  this  bank ! 
Here  will  we  sit,  and  let  the  sounds  of  music 
Creep  in  our  ears.     Soft  stillness  and  the  night 
Become  the  touches  of  sweet  harmony. 

Look  how  the  floor  of  heaven 

Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold ! 

There  ''s  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  behold'st, 

But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 

Still  quiring  to  the  young-eyed  cherubims. 

Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls ; 

But  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 

Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it. 

Shakspeare  :  Mer.  of  Ven, 

Beauty,]  CLI. 

Beauty  itself  is  but  the  sensible  image  of  the  infinite. 

Bancroft, 
May.]  CLI  I. 

Oh,  the  merry  May  has  pleasant  hours, 

And  dreamily  they  glide, 
As  if  they  floated  like  the  leaves 

Upon  a  silver  tide. 
The  trees  are  full  of  crimson  buds, 
And  the  woods  are  full  of  birds. 
And  the  waters  flow  to  music. 

Like  a  song  with  pleasant  words.       Willis  :  May, 


132  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE, 

Beauty  ofNature.'\  CLIII. 

Nature  cannot  be  surprised  in  undress.  Beauty  breaks  in  every 
where.  Emerson. 

Night.-\  CLIV. 

The  twilight  hours  like  birds  flew  by, 

As  lightly  and  as  free ; 
Ten  thousand  stars  were  in  the  sky, 

Ten  thousand  in  the  sea ; 
For  every  wave  with  dimpled  cheek 

That  leaped  into  the  air, 
Had  caught  a  star  in  its  embrace, 

And  held  it  trembling  there.        Amelia  B.  Welby. 
FrosU^  CLV. 

What  a  cunning  silversmith  is  the  Frost !  The  rarest  work- 
manship of  Delhi  and  Genoa  copies  him  but  clumsily,  as  if  the 
fingers  of  all  other  artists  were  thumbs.  Fern-work  and  lace-work 
and  filigree  in  endless  variety,  and  under  it  all  the  water  tinkles 
like  a  distant  guitar,  or  drums  like  a  tambourine,  or  gurgles  like 
the  tokay  of  an  anchorite's  dream.  Jas.  Russell  Lowell. 

Evening^  CLVI. 

Now  came  still  Evening  on,  and  Twilight  gray 
Had  in  her  sober  livery  all  things  clad. 
Silence  accompanied ;  for  beast  and  bird. 
They  to  their  grassy  couch,  these  to  their  nests 
Were  slunk,  all  but  the  wakeful  nightingale ; 
She  all  night  long  her  amorous  descant  sung ; 
Silence  was  pleased.     Now  glowed  the  firmament 
With  living  sapphires  :  Hesperus,  that  led 
The  starry  host,  rode  brightest,  till  the  moon, 
Rising  in  clouded  majesty,  at  length 
Apparent  queen,  unveiled  her  peerless  light, 
And  o'er  the  dark  her  silver  mantle  threw. 

Milton  :  Paradise  Lost^  Bk.  IV. 

Autumn. \  CLVI  I. 

The  melancholy  days  are  come,  the  saddest  of  the  year. 

Of  wailing  winds  and  naked  woods  and  meadows  brown  and 
sere  ; 

Heaped  in  the  hollows  of  the  grove,  the  autumn  leaves  lie  dead ; 

They  rustle  to  the  eddying  gust  and  to  the  rabbit's  tread ; 

The  robin  and  the  wren  are  flown,  and  from  the  shrubs  the  jay. 

And  from  the  wood-top  calls  the  crow,  through  all  the  gloomy 
day.  Bryant  :  Death  of  the  Flowers. 

Life,-\  CLVin. 

A  man's  life  is  an  appendix  to  his  heart.  South. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS,  133 

Deatk,^  CLIX. 

Leaves  have  their  time  to  fall, 
And  flowers  to  wither  at  the  north  wind's  breath, 

And  stars  to  set;  but  all — 
Thou  hast  all  seasons  for  thine  own,  O  Death  ! 

Mrs.  Hemans. 
EducationJ]  CLX. 

Do  not  ask  if  a  man  has  been  through  college :  ask  if  a  college 
has  been  through  him ;  if  he  is  a  walking  university.        Chapin. 

A  Little  Girl.]  CLXI. 

A  Princess  from  the  Fairy  Isles, 
The  very  pattern  girl  of  girls, 
All  covered  and  embowered  in  curls. 
Rose-tinted  from  the  Isle  of  Flowers, 
And  sailing  with  soft,  silken  sails, 
From  far-off  Dreamland  into  ours. 

Longfellow  :  Hanging  of  the  Crane, 

Education.}  CLXII. 

We  speak  of  educating  our  children.  Do  we  know  that  our 
children  also  educate  us  ?  Mrs.  Sigourney 

Barefoot  Boy.}  CLXIII. 

Blessings  on  thee,  little  man. 

Barefoot  boy  with  cheek  of  tan ; 

With  thy  turned  up  pantaloons. 

And  thy  merry  whistled  tunes ; 

With  thy  red  lips,  redder  still 

Kissed  by  strawberries  on  the  hill ; 

With  the  sunshine  on  thy  face. 

Through  thy  torn  brim's  jaunty  grace; 

From  my  heart  I  give  thee  joy  : 

I  was  once  a  barefoot  boy.  Whittier. 

Tears  and  Laughter.}  CLXIV. 

In  a  natural  state,  tears  and  laughter  go  hand  in  hand  ;  for  they 
are  twin-born.  Like  two  children  sleeping  in  one  cradle,  when 
one  wakes  and  stirs,  the  other  wakes  also.  Beecher. 

Praying.}  CLXV. 

Two  went  up  to  pray  ?    Oh,  rather  say, 

One  went  to  brag,  the  other  to  pray ; 

One  stands  up  close,  and  treads  on  high, 

Where  the  other  dares  not  lend  his  eye ; 

One  nearer  to  God's  altar  trod, 

The  other  to  the  altar's  God.  Richard  Crashaw. 


134  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Light  from  Darkness. \  GLXVl. 

The  eternal  stars  shine  out  as  soon  as  it  is  dark  enough. 

Whistling  Boys.'\  CLXVII. 

Don't  you  be  afraid,  boys, 

To  whistle  loud  and  long, 
Although  your  quiet  sisters 
Should  call  it  rude  or  wrong. 

Keep  yourselves  good-natured, 

And  if  smiling  fails, 
Ask  them  if  they  ever  saw 

Muzzles  on  the  quails. 

So  don't  you  be  afraid,  boys. 

In  spite  of  bar  or  ban. 
To  whistle, — it  will  help  you  each 
*  To  be  an  honest  man. 

Alice  Gary  :  To  the  Boys, 

Education.]  CLXVIII. 

The  true  order  of  learning  should  be,  first,  what  is  necessary ; 
second,  what  is  useful ;  and  third,  what  is  ornamental.  To  re- 
verse this  arrangement  is  like  beginning  to  build  at  the  top  of  the 
edifice.  Mrs.  Sigourney. 

Death.-]  CLXIX. 

There  is  no  flock,  however  watched  and  tended, 

But  one  dead  lamb  is  there; 
There  is  no  fireside,  howsoe'er  defended, 
But  has  one  vacant  chair. 

Longfellow  :  Resignation, 
mt.]  CLXX. 

Wit  loses  its  respect  with  the  good,  when  seen  in  company  with 
malice;  and  to  smile  at  the  jest  that  plants  a  thorn  in  anothers 
breast,  is  to  become  a  principal  in  the  mischief.  Sheridan. 

Death  of  an  Infant.]  CLXXI. 

There  beamed  a  smile 
So  fixed,  so  holy,  from  that  cherub  brow. 
Death  gazed  and  left  it  there.     He  dared  not  steal 
The  signet-ring  of  Heaven.  Mrs.  Sigourney. 

Books.]  CLXXIl. 

The  past  lives  but  in  words;  a  thousand  ages  were  blank  if- 
books  had  not  evoked  their  ghosts,  and  kept  the  pale,  unbodied 
shades  to  warn  us  from  fleshless  lips.  Bulwer-Lytton. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  135 

Spiritual  Influence. \  CLXXIII. 

Hands  of  invisible  spirits  touch  the  strings 
Of  that  mysterious  instrument,  the  soul, 
And  play  the  prelude  of  our  fate. 

Longfellow  :  Spanish  Student, 

Evening  Bells. ]  CLXXI V. 

Those  evening  bells,  those  evening  bells, 
How  many  a  tale  their  music  tells 
.    Of  youth,  and  home,  and  that  sweet  time 
When  last  I  heard  their  soothing  chime ! 

Those  joyous  hours  are  passed  away  ; 
And  many  a  heart  that  then  was  gay 
Within  the  tomb  now  darkly  dwells. 
And  hears  no  more  those  evening  bells. 

And  so  't  will  be  when  I  am  gone; 

That  tuneful  peal  will  still  ring  on, 

While  other  bards  shall  walk  these  dells, 

And  sing  your  praise,  sweet  evening  bells.  Moore. 

Doing  Good.}  CLXXV. 

The  greatest  pleasure  I  know  is  to  do  a  good  action  by  stealth, 
and  to  have  it  found  out  by  accident.  Lamb. 

Death.]  CLXXV  L 

THE   DEATHBED. 

We  watched  her  breathing  through  the  night, 

Her  breathing  soft  and  low. 
As  in  her  breast  the  wave  of  life 

Kept  heaving  to  and  fro. 

So  silently  we  seemed  to  speak. 

So  slowly  moved  about. 
As  we  had  lent  her  half  our  powers 

To  eke  her  living  out. 

Our  very  hopes  belied  our  fears, 

Our  fears  our  hopes  belied ; 
We  thought  her  dying  when  she  slept, 

And  sleeping  when  she  died. 

For  when  the  morn  came,  dim  and  sad, 

And  chill  with  early  showers. 
Her  quiet  eyelids  closed ;  she  had 

Another  morn  than  ours.  Hood, 


136  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

Glorious  Lz/e.]  CLXXVII. 

Sound,  sound  the  clarion  !  fill  the  fife ! 

To  all  the  sensual  world  proclaim, 
One  crowded  hour  of  glorious  life 

Is  worth  an  age  without  a  name.  Scott. 

Deaik  {of  Mrs.  Lowell),-]  CLXXVIII. 

Then  fell  upon  the  house  a  sudden  gloom, 

A  shadow  on  those  features  fair  and  thin, 
And  softly,  from  that  hushed  and  darkened  room, 
Two  angels  issued  where  but  one  went  in. 

Longfellow  :  The  Two  Angels. 

The  Past.-]  CLXXIX. 

Tears,  idle  tears,  I  know  not  M'hat  they  mean ; 
Tears  from  the  depth  of  some  divine  despair 
Rise  in  the  heart  and  gather  to  the  eyes, 
In  looking  at- the  happy  autumn  fields, 
And  thinking  of  the  days  that  are  no  more. 

Dear  as  remembered  kisses  after  death. 
And  sweet  as  those  by  hopeless  fancy  feigned 
On  lips  that  are  for  others ;  deep  as  love. 
Deep  as  first  love,  and  wild  with  all  regret, — 
Oh  !  death  in  life !  the  days  that  are  no  more ! 

Tennyson  :   The  Princess, 

Cares,]  CLXXX. 

Too  nmch  of  joy  is  sorrowful, 

So  cares  must  needs  abound  ; 
The  vine  that  bears  too  many  flowers 

Will  trail  upon  the  ground.  Alice  Gary. 

Remembrance.]  CLXXXI. 

This  is  truth  the  poet  sings, 
That  a  sorrow's  crown  of  sorrow  is  remembering  happier  things, 

Tennyson  :  Locksley  Hall, 

Sensibility.]  CLXXXII. 

I  would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends. 

Through  graced  with  polished  manners  and  fine  sense, 

Yet  wanting  sensibility,  the  man 

Who  needlessly  sets  foot  upon  a  worm.  Cowper, 

Sym^pathy.]  CLXXXII. 

No  one  is  so  accursed  by  fate. 
No  one  so  utterly  desolate. 

But  some  heart,  though  unknown, 
Responds  unto  his  own. 


MISCELLANEOUS   EXTRACTS.  137 

Responds  as  if,  with  unseen  wings, 
An  angel  touched  the  quivering  strings, 

And  whispered  in  his  song, 

Where  hast  thou  staid  so  long  ? 

Longfellow  :  Endymion. 

Laughter.-]  CLXXXIV. 

No  one  who  has  once  heartily  and  wholly  laughed  can  be  alto- 
gether irreclaimably  depraved.  Carlyle. 

Spring.-]  CLXXXV. 

In  the  spring  a  fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin's  breast; 
In  the  spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another  crest ; 
In  the  spring  a  livelier  iris  changes  on  the  burnished  dove ; 
In  the  spring  the  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts  of 
love.  ,  Tennyson  :  Locksley  Hall, 

Love.]  CLXXXVI. 

If  there  is  anything  that  keeps  the  mind  open  to  angel-visits 
and  repels  the  ministry  of  ill,  it  is  human  love.  Willis. 

Prayer  and  Love.]  CLXXXVII. 

He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well 

Both  man  and  bird  and  beast ; 
He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 

All  things,  both  great  and  small; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all.  Coleridge. 

Slander  and  Anger .]  CLXXXVIII. 

Alas  !  they  had  been  friends  in  youth ; 
But  whispering  tongues  can  poison  truth ; 
And  constancy  lives  in  realms  above  ; 

And  life  is  thorny,  and  youth  is  vain, 
And  to  be  wroth  with  one  we  love. 

Doth  work  like  madness  in  the  brain.    Coleridge. 

Social  Evils,]  CLXXXIX, 

Cursed  be  the  social  wants  that  sin  against  the  strength  of  youth ! 
Cursed  be  the  social  lies  that  warp  us  from  the  living  truth  ! 
Cursed  be  the  sickly  forms  that  err  from  honest  nature's  rule ! 
Cursed  be  the  gold  that  gilds  the  straitened  forehead  of  the  fool ! 

Tennyson  :  Locksley  Hall, 
Birds.]  CXC. 

Think,  every  morning,  when  the  sun  peeps  through 

The  dim  leaf-latticed  windows  of  the  grove. 
How  jubilant  the  happy  birds  renew 
Their  old  melodious  madrigals  of  love ; 


138  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

And  when  you  think  of  this,  remember,  too, 
'T  is  always  morning  somewhere,  and  above 
The  awakening  continents,  from  shore  to  shore. 
Somewhere  the  birds  are  singing  evermore ! 

Longfellow  :  Birds  of  Killingworth. 

Evening.']  CXCI. 

One  long  bar 
Of  purple  cloud,  on  which  the  evening  star 
Shone  like  a  jewel  on  a  scimetar, 
Held  the  sky's  golden  gateway.     Through  the  deep 
Hush  of  the  woods  a  murmur  seemed  to  creep — 
The  Schuylkill  whispering  in  a  voice  of  sleep. 

Whittier  :  Penn.  Pilgrim, 

Home.]  CXCI  I. 

Better  than  gold  is  a'peaceful  home, 
Where  all  the  fireside  charities  come, — 
The  shrine  of  love  and  the  heaven  of  life, 
Hallowed  by  mother  or  sister  or  wife. 
However  humble  the  home  may  be. 
Or  tried  with  sorrow,  by  Heaven's  decree, 
The  blessings  that  never  were  bought  or  sold, 
And  centre  there,  are  better  than  gold. 

Midnight.]  CXCIII. 

'T  is  midnight's  holy  hour,  and  silence  now 

Is  brooding,  like  a  gentle  spirit,  o'er 

The  still  and  pulseless  world.  Geo.  D.  Prentice. 

Night.]  CXCIV. 

Night,  sable  goddess,  from  her  ebon  throne. 

In  rayless  majesty  now  stretches  forth 

Her  leaden  sceptre  o'er  a  slumbering  world. 

Young  :  Night  Thoughts. 
Sadness  and  Consolation.]  CXCV. 

THE  RAINY  DAY. 
The  day  is  cold  and  dark  and  dreary ; 
It  rains,  and  the  wind  is  never  weary; 
The  vine  still  clings  to  the  mouldering  wall, 
But  at  every  gust  the  dead  leaves  fall. 
And  the  day  is  dark  and  dreary. 

My  life  is  cold  and  dark  and  dreary ; 
It  rains,  and  the  wind  is  never  weary  ; 
My  thoughts  still  cling  to  the  mouldering  past, 
But  the  hopes  of  youth  fall  thick  in  the  blast, 
And  the  days  are  dark  and  dreary. 


MISCELLANEOUS   EXTRACTS.  139 

Be  still,  sad  heart !  and  cease  repining ; 
Behind  the  clouds  is  the  sun  still  shining ; 
Thy  fate  is  the  common  fate  of  all ; 
Into  each  life  some  rain  must  fall, 
Some  days  must  be  dark  and  dreary. 

Longfellow* 
Fulfilment:\  CXCVI. 

Sometimes  an  hour  of  Fate's  serenest  weather 

Strikes  through  our  changeful  sky  its  coming  beams ; 
Somewhere  above  us,  in  elusive  ether, 

Waits  the  fulfilment  of  our  dearest  dreams. 

So,  when  the  wayward  time  and  gift  have  blended, 
When  hope  beholds  relinquished  visions  won, 

The  heavens  are  broken,  and  a  blue  more  splendid 
Holds  in  its  bosom  an  enchanted  sun. 

Bayard  Taylor  :  Ad  Amicos  {from  Home  Pastorals). 

Music]  CXCVII. 

I  pant  for  the  music  which  is  divine  ; 

My  soul  in  its  thirst  is  a  dying  flower. 
Pour  forth  the  sounds  like  enchanted  wine ; 

Loosen  the  notes  in  a  silver  shower !  Shelley. 

Music.}  CXCVIII. 

That  strain  again  ;  it  had  a  dying  fall ; 

Oh,  it  came  o'er  my  ear  like  the  sweet  south 

That  breathes  upon  a  bank  of  violets, 

Stealing  and  giving  odor.  Shak.:  Twelfth  Night, 

Union  and  Liberty.  ]  CX  C I X, 

Lord  of  the  Universe  !  shield  us  and  guide  us, 

Trusting  thee  always  through  shadow  and  sun  1 
Thou  hast  united  us, — who  shall  divide  us  ? 
Keep  us,  oh,  keep  us  the  many  in  one  ! 
Up  with  our  banner  bright. 
Sprinkled  with  starry  light. 
Spread  its  fair  emblems  from  mountain  to  shore. 
While  through  the  sounding  sky. 
Loud  rings  the  nation's  cry. 
Union  and  Liberty  !   One  evermore  !  Holmes. 

Cheerfulness.]  CC. 

Here  's  a  sigh  to  those  who  love  me. 

And  a  smile  to  those  who  hate. 
And  whatever  sky  's  above  me, 
Here 's  a  heart  for  any  fate. 

Byron  :  To  Tom  Moore, 


140  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Sleep,^  CCI. 

"  God  bless  the  man  who  first  invented  sleep  !" 

So  Sancho  Panza  said,  and  so  say  I.  Saxh. 

Bugle  Song.-\  CCII. 

The  splendor  falls  on  castle  walls 

And  snowy  summits  old  in  story  ; 
The  lonar  light  shakes  across  the  lakes, 

And  the  wild  cataract  leaps  in  glory. 
Blow,  bugle,  blow  !  set  the  wild  echoes  flying! 
Blow,  bugle !  answer,  echoes  ! — dying,  dying,  dying. 

Oh,  hark  !  oh,  hear  !  how  thin  and  clear  ! 

And  thinner,  clearer,  farther  going  ! 
Oh,  sweet  and  far,  from  cliff  and  scar. 

The  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing  ! 
Blow  !  let  us  hear  the  purple  glens  replying  ! 
Blow,  bugle  !  answer,  echoes  ! — dying,  dying,  dying. 

O  love,  they  die  in  yon  rich  sky; 

They  faint  on  hill  or  field  or  river ; 
Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul, 

And  grow  forever  and  forever  I 
Blow,  bugle,  blow  !  set  the  wild  echoes  flying ! 
And  answer,  echoes,  answer ! — dying,  dying,  dying. 
Tennyson  ;   The  Princess, 

Remembrance. "[  CCIII. 

Break,  break,  break. 

On  thy  cold,  gray  stones,  O  Sea ! 
And  I  would  that  my  tongue  could  utter 

The  thoughts  that  arise  in  me. 

Oh,  well  for  the  fisherman's  boy. 

That  he  shouts  with  his  sister  at  play ! 

Oh,  well  for  the  sailor  lad 

That  he  sings  in  his  boat  on  the  bay ! 

And  the  stately  ships  go  on 

To  their  haven  under  the  hill ; 
But  oh,  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 

And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still ! 

Break,  break,  break. 

At  the  foot  of  thy  crags,  O  Sea  ! 
But  the  tender  grace  of  a  day  that  is  dead 

Will  never  come  back  to  me  !  Tennyson. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  141 

lVorth.'\  CCIV. 

True  worth  is  in  being,  not  seeming, — 

In  doing,  each  day  that  goes  by, 
Some  little  good,  not  in  dreaming 

Of  great  things  to  do  by  and  by ; 
For  whatever  men  say  in  their  blindness. 

And  spite  of  the  fancies  of  youth, 
There  is  nothing  so  kingly  as  kindness. 

And  nothing  so  royal  as  truth.  ' 

Alice  Gary  :  Nobility. 
Lave^l  CCV. 

The  night  has  a  thousand  eyes, 

And  the  day  but  one ; 
Yet  the  light  of  the  bright  world  dies 

With  the  dying  sun. 

The  mind  has  a  thousand  eyes. 

And  the  heart  but  one ; 
Yet  the  light  of  a  whole  life  dies 

When  love  is  done.  f.  W.  Bourdillon. 

Unkindness.']  CCVI. 

Is  it  worth  while  that  we  jostle  a  brother 

Bearing  his  load  on  the  rough  road  of  life  ? 
Is  it  worth  while  that  we  jeer  at  each  other 

In  blackness  of  heart  ? — that  we  war  to  the  knife  ? 
Go4pity  us  all  in  our  pitiful  strife. 

Joaquin  Miller  :  Down  into  the  Dust, 

Decay,}  CCVII. 

Little  of  all  we  value  here 
Wakes  on  the  morn  of  its  hundredth  year 
Without  both  feeling  and  looking  queer. 
In  fact,  there's  nothing  that  keeps  its  youth. 
So  far  as  I  know,  but  a  tree  and  truth. 

Holmes  :  T/ie  One-Hoss  Shay, 

Pleasure  and  Tears.]  CCVIII. 

Upon  the  valley's  lap 

The  dewy  morning  throws 
A  thousand  pearly  drops. 

To  wake  a  single  rose. 
Thus  often,  in  the  course 

Of  life's  few  fleeting  years, 
A  single  pleasure  costs 

The  soul  a  thousand  tears. 

Bryant  :  Front  the  Spanish, 


142  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

The  Devil.-]  CCIX. 

There  are  like  to  be  short  graces  where  the  devil  plays  host. 

Lamb 
Love.]  CCX. 

Man's  love  is  of  man's  life  a  thing  apart ; 

'Tis  woman's  whole  existence.  Byron. 

LoveJ]  CCXI. 

The  poet's  heart  is  an  unlighted  torch,  which  gives  no  help  tc 
his  footsteps  till  love  has  touched  it  with  flame.  Lowell. 

Literature.]  CCXIL 

Literature  is  the  thought  of  thinking  souls,  Carlyle. 

ccxin. 

The  best  laid  schemes  o'  mice  and  men 

Gang  aft  agley, 
And  leave  us  nought  but  grief  and  pain, 

For  promised  joy.  Burns  :  To  a  Mouse. 

Apology.']  CCXIV. 

Apology  is  only  egotism  wrong  side  out.  Nine  times  out  of 
ten  the  first  thing  a  man's  companions  know  of  his  short-comings 
is  from  his  apology.  Holmes. 

Patience.]  CCXV. 

There  is  no  crown  in  the  world 
So  good  as  patience ;  neither  is  any  peace 
That  God  puts  in  our  lips  to  drink  as  wine, 
More  honey-pure,  more  worthy  love's  own  praise, 
Than  that  sweet-souled  endurance  which  makes  clean 
The  iron  hands  of  anger. 

Swinburne  :   The  Queen  Mother, 

Fear.]  CCXVL 

Fear  is  the  white-lipped  sire  of  subterfuge  and  treachery. 

Mrs.  Sigourney. 
Love  of  Nature.]  CCXVIL 

Thanks  to  the  human  heart  by  which  we  live, 
Thanks  to  its  tenderness,  its  joys,  and  fears, 
To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears. 

Wordsworth  :   Ode  on  Immortality. 

Falsehood.]  CCX  VII L 

No  lie  you  can  speak  or  act,  but  it  will  come,  after  a  longer  or 
shorter  circulation,  like  a  bill  drawn  on  Nature's  reality,  and  be 
presented  there  for  payment, — with  the  answer,  No  effects. 

Carlylk. 


MISCELLANE O  US  EXTRA  CTS.  143 

Respect  for  Antiquity.^  CCXIX, 

It  is  one  proof  of  a  good  education,  and  of  true  refinement  of 
feeling,  to  respect  antiquity.  Mrs.  Sigourney. 

Talkativeness. '\  CCXX. 

I  fear  him  greatly  ; 
It  is  the  unwound  and  ravelled  sort  of  man 
That  the  proof  uses  worst ;  so  large  of  lip 
Was  never  yet  secure  in  spirit.  Swinburne. 

Knowledge, -\  CCXXI. 

Knowledge  and  timber  should  not  be  much  used  until  they 
are  seasoned.  Holmes. 

Taking  Notes,-\  CCXXII. 

If  there  's  a  hole  in  a'  your  coats, 

I  rede  ye  tent  it ; 
A  chiel  's  amang  ye  takin  notes, 

And  faith  he  '11  prent  it.  Burns. 

A  Guilty  Conscience,']  CCXXIII. 

There  is  no  den  in  the  wide  world  to  hide  a  rogue.  Commit 
a  crime,  and  the  earth  is  made  of  glass.  Commit  a  crime,  and  it 
seems  as  if  a  coat  of  snow  fell  on  the  ground,  such  as  reveals  in 
the  woods  the  track  of  every  partridge  and  fox  and  squirrel  and 
i"ole-  Emerson. 

Woman.'X  CCXXIV. 

A  creature  not  too  bright  nor  good 

For  human  nature's  daily  food. 

For  transient  sorrows,  simple  wiles, 

Praise,  blame,  love,  kisses,  tears,  and  smiles. 


A  perfect  woman,  nobly  planned 
To  warn,  to  comfort,  and  command; 
And  yet  a  spirit  still,  and  bright 
With  something  of  an  angel  light. 

Wordswor-^h  :  She  was  a  Phantom,  etc. 

Morality,-]  CCXXV. 

Morality  without  religion  is  only  a  kind  of  dead  reckoning,  an 
endeavor  to  find  our  place  on  a  cloudy  sea  by  measuring  the  distance 
we  have  to  run,  but  without  any  observation  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

Longfellow. 


144 


COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 


Li/e,-\  ccxxvr. 

He  liveth  long  who  livcth  well  I 

All  other  life  is  short  and  vain. 
He  liveth  longest  who  can  tell 

Of  living  most  for  heavenly  gain. 
He  liveth  long  who  liveth  well ! 

All  else  is  being  flung  away  ; 
He  liveth  longest  who  can  tell 

Of  true  things  truly  done  each  day. 
Waste  not  thy  being  ;  back  to  Him 

Who  freely  gave  it,  freely  give; 
Else  is  that  being  but  a  dream — 

'T  is  but  to  be,  and  not  to  live. 
Be  wise,  and  use  thy  wisdom  well ; 

Who  wisely  speaks  must  live  it  too. 
He  is  the  wisest  who  can  tell 

How  first  he  lived,  then  spoke  the  true. 

Autumn.-]  CCXXVII. 

Softly  o'er  the  face  of  nature, 

With  an  aspect  sad  and  strange, 
Like  a  passing  spell  of  magic, 

Cometh  on  the  wondrous  change, — 
Summer  breathing  out  her  brightness, 

Laying  by  her  glowing  charms, 
And,  with  hectic  flush  of  beauty. 

Sinking  into  Autumn's  arms. 

Edward  Brooks  :  Autmnn  Musings^ 

Life.-\  CCXXVIII. 

Over  and  over  again, 

No  matter  which  way  I  turn, 
I  always  find  in  the  book  of  life 

Some  lesson  that  I  must  learn ; 
I  must  take  my  turn  at  the  mill, 

I  must  grind  out  the  golden  grain, 
I  must  work  at  my  task  with  a  resolute  will, 

Over  and  over  again. 

Truth.-\  CCXXIX. 

Think  truly,  and  thy  thought 

Shall  the  world's  famine  feed; 
Speak  truly,  and  thy  word 

Shall  be  a  fruitful  seed ; 
Live  truly,  and  thy  life  shall  be 

A  great  and  noble  creed. 


MISCELLANEOUS    EXTRACTS.  145 

Freedom?^  CCXXX. 

O  give,  great  God,  to  Freedom's  waves  to  ride 

Sublime  o'er  conquest,  avarice  and  pride; 

To  sweep  where  Pleasure  decks  her  guilty  bowers. 

And  dark  Oppression  builds  her  thick-ribbed  towers. 

Wordsworth. 
"^peak  Gently.-\  CCXXXI. 

Speak  gently  !  it  is  better  far 

To  rule  by  love  than  fear ; 
Speak  gently !  lei  not  harsh  words  mar 

The  good  we  might  do  here. 

Speak  gently  !  Love  doth  whisper  low 

The  vows  that  true  hearts  bind; 
And  gently  Friendship's  accents  flow ; 

Affection's  voice  is  kind. 


Speak  gently  !  't  is  a  little  thing 
Dropped  in  the  heart's  deep  well ; 

The  good,  the  joy,  which  it  may  bring. 

Eternity  shall  tell.  G.  W.  Hangford. 

Imperishable. \  CCXXXIl. 

The  cruel  and  the  bitter  word 

That  wounded  as  it  fell, 
The  chilling  want  of  sympathy 

We  feel,  but  never  tell. 
The  hard  repulse  that  chills  the  heart 

Whose  hopes  were  bounding  high, 
In  an  unfading  record  kept, — 

These  things  shall  never  die. 

Let  nothing  pass ;  for  every  hand 

Must  find  some  work  to  do ; 
Lose  not  a  chance  to  waken  love ; 

Be  firm  and  just  and  true. 
So  shall  a  light  that  cannot  fade 

Beam  on  thee  from  on  high. 
And  angel  voices  say  to  thee, 
"  These  things  shall  never  die." 

From  ^'' All  the  Year  Round." 
Systems.'\  CCXXXIII. 

Our  little  systems  have  their  day ; 

They  have  their  day  and  cease  to  be ; 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  thee. 
And  thou,  O  Lord,  art  more  than  they. 
^  Tennyson  :  In  Memoriam, 


146  COMMON-SCHOOL    LITERATURE. 

Woman.]  CCXXXIV. 

Be  a  woman  !  on  to  duty  ! 

Raise  the  world  from  all  that  's  low; 
Place  high  in  the  social  heaven 

Virtue's  fair  and  radiant  bow ; 
Lend  thy  influence  to  each  effort 

That  shall  raise  our  nature  human ; 
Be  not  fashion's  gilded  lady, — 

Be  a  brave,  whole-souled,  true  woman! 

Edward  JBrooks;  Be  a  Woman. 

A  Baby.]  CCXXXV. 

Have  you  not  heard  the  poets  tell 
How  came  the  dainty  Babie  Bell 

Into  this  world  of  ours  ? 
The  gates  of  heaven  were  left  ajar; 
With  folded  hands  and  dreamy  eyes, 
Wandering  out  of  Paradise, 
She  saw  this  planet,  like  a  star, 

Hung  in  the  glistening  depths  of  even, 
Its  bridges  running  to  and  fro. 
O'er  which  the  white-winged  angels  go, 

Bearing  the  holy  dead  to  heaven ; 
She  touched  a  bridge  of  flowers — those  feet, 
So  light  they  did  not  bend  the  bells 
Of  the  celestial  asphodels  ! 

They  fell  like  dew  upon  the  flowers ; 
Then  all  the  air  grew  strangely  sweet; 
And  thus  came  dainty  Babie  Bell 
Into  this  world  of  ours. 

T.  B.  Aldrich  :  Babie  Bell. 
October.]  CCXXXVI. 

Ay,  thou  art  welcome,  heaven's  delicious  breath, 
When  woods  begin  to  wear  the  crimson  leaf, 
And  suns  grow  meek,  and  the  meek  suns  grow  brief, 
And  the  year  smiles  as  it  drav/s  near  its  death. 
Wind  of  the  sunny  South  !  oh,  still  delay 
In  the  gay  woods  and  in  the  golden  air. 
Like  to  a  good  old  age  released  from  care, 
Journeying,  in  long  serenity  away. 
In  such  a  bright,  late  quiet,  would  that  I 

Might  wear  out  life  like  thee,  mid  bowers  and  brooks, 
And,  dearer  yet,  the  sunshine  of  kind  looks, 
And  music  of  kind  voices  ever  nigh  ; 

And  when  my  last  sand  twinkled  in  the  glass, 
Pass  silently  from  men,  as  thou  dost  pass. 

Bryant  :  A  Sonnet. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS. 


147 


Nature's  Influence.'^  CCXXXVII. 

One  impulse  from  a  vernal  wood 

May  teach  you  more  of  man, 
Of  moral  evil  and  of  good, 
Than  all  the  sages  can. 

Wordsworth  :   Tables  Turned. 


Winter  A 


CCXXXVIII. 
SNOW-FLAKES. 


Out  of  the  bosom  of  the  air. 

Out  of  the  cloud-folds  of  her  garments  shaken. 
Over  the  woodlands  brown  and  bare, 
Over  the  harvest-fields  forsaken. 
Silent  and  soft  and  slow 
Descends  the  snow. 

Even  as  our  cloudy  fancies  take 

Suddenly  shape  in  some  divine  expression, 
Even  as  the  troubled  heart  doth  make 
In  the  white  countenance  confession. 
The  troubled  sky  reveals 
The  grief  it  feels. 
This  is  the  poem  of  the  air, 

Slowly  in  silent  syllables  recorded  ! 
This  is  the  secret  of  despair, 

Long  in  its  cloudy  bosom  hoarded. 
Now  whispered  and  revealed 
To  wood  and  field.  Longfellow. 

Wisdom,^  CCXXXIX. 

If  Wisdom's  ways  you  'd  wisely  seek. 

Five  things  observe  with  care; 
Of  whom  you  speak,  to  whom  you  speak. 

And  how,  and  when,  and  where. 

Union.']  CCXL. 

North  and  South,  we  are  met  as  brothers ; 

East  and  West  we  are  wedded  as  one ; 
Right  of  each  shall  secure  our  mother's ; 
Child  of  each  is  her  faithful  son  ! 
We  give  thee  heart  and  hand. 
Our  glorious  native  land, 
For  battle  has  tried  thee,  and  time  endears ; 
We  will  write  thy  story. 
And  keep  thy  glory 
As  pure  as  of  old  for  a  Thousand  Years ! 

Bayard  Taylor:  Song  of  iBjb, 


148  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE. 

Life,]  CCXLI. 

Sow  truth,  if  thou  the  truth  would'st  reap ; 

Who  sows  the  false  shall  reap  the  vain; 
Erect  and  sound  thy  conscience  keep ; 

From  hollow  words  and  deeds  refrain. 

Sow  love,  and  taste  its  fruitage  pure  ; 

Sow  peace,  and  reap  its  harvest  bright; 
Sow  sunbeams  on  the  rock  and  moor, 

And  find  the  harvest-home  of  light. 

Dawn.]  CCXLI  I. 

[We  give  the  following  extract,  though  it  is  long,  because  we  regard  it  as 
one  of  the  most  sublime  passages  ever  penned  by  the  hand  of  man.] 

As  we  proceeded,  the  timid  approach  of  twilight  became  more 
perceptible ;  the  intense  blue  of  the  sky  began  to  soften ;  the 
smaller  stars,  like  little  children,  went  first  to  rest;  the  sister  beams 
of  the  Pleiades  soon  melted  together  :  but  the  bright  constellations 
of  the  west  and  north  remained  unchanged.  Steadily  the  won- 
drous transfiguration  went  on.  Hands  of  angels  hidden  from  mor- 
tal eyes  shifted  the  scenery  of  the  heavens  ;  the  glories  of  night 
dissolved  into  the  glories  of  the  dawn.  The  blue  sky  now  turned 
more  softly  gray ;  the  great  watch-stars  shut  up  their  holy  eyes  ; 
the  east  began  to  kindle.  Faint  streaks  of  purple  soon  blushed 
along  the  sky ;  the  whole  celestial  concave  was  filled  with  the 
inflowing  tides  of  the  morning  light,  which  came  pouring  down 
from  above  in  one  great  ocean  of  radiance  ;  till  at  length,  as  we 
reached  the  Blue  Hills,  a  flash  of  purple  fire  blazed  out  from  above 
the  horizon,  and  turned  the  dewy  tear-drops  of  flower  and  leaf 
into  rubies  and  diamonds.  In  a  few  seconds  the  everlasting  gates 
of  the  morning  were  thrown  wide  open,  and  the  lord  of  day, 
arrayed  in  glories  too  severe  for  the  gaze  of  man,  began  his  state. 

Everett. 
A  Kiver.]  CCXLIII. 

That  fairy  music  I  never  hear, 
Nor  gaze  on  those  waters  so  green  and  clear, 
And  mark  them  winding  away  from  sight. 
Darkened  with  shade  or  flashing  with  light. 
While  o'er  them  the  vine  to  its  thicket  clings 
And  the  zephyr  stoops  to  freshen  his  wings, 
But  I  wish  that  fate  had  left  me  free 
To  wander  these  quiet  haunts  with  thee. 
Till  the  eating  cares  of  earth  should  depart. 
And  the  peace  of  the  scene  pass  into  my  heart ; 
And  1  envy  thy  stream,  as  it  glides  along 
Through  its  beautiful  banks,  in  a  trance  of  song. 

Bryant  :  Grt'en  River. 


MISCELLANEOUS  EXTRACTS.  149 

The  Om/j.J  CCXLIV. 

When  klingle,  klangle,  klingle, 

Way  down  the  dusky  dingle. 

The  cows  are  coming  home ; 
How  sweet  and  clear  and  faint  and  low 
The  airy  tinklings  come  and  go, 
Like  chimings  from  the  far-off  tower, 
Or  patterings  of  an  April  shower 

That  makes  the  daisies  grow ; 

Ko-ling,  ko-lang,  ko-linglelingle, 

Way  down  the  darkening  dingle. 

The  cows  come  slowly  home ; 
And  old-time  friends  and  twilight  plays 
And  starry  nights  and  sunny  days 
Come  trooping  up  the  misty  ways. 

When  the  cows  come  home. 

Liberty  and  Union.']  CCXLV. 

When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold  for  the  last  time  the 
sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and  dis- 
honored fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union ;  on  states  dissevered, 
discordant,  belligerent;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or 
drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood  !  Let  their  last  feeble  and 
lingering  glance  rather  behold  the  gorgeous  ensign  of  the  Repub- 
lic, now  known  and  honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high 
advanced,  its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original  lustre, 
not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single  star  obscured  ;  bear- 
for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory  as.  What  is  all  this 
worth  ?  nor  those  other  words  of  delusion  and  folly,  Liberty  first, 
and  Union  afterwards ;  but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in  charac- 
ters of  living  light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as  they  float  over 
the  sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the  whole 
heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true  American  heart, 
— Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable  ! 

Webster. 

Li/e.^  CCXLVI. 

Be  what  thou  seemest ;  live  thy  creed ; 

Hold  up  to  earth  the  torch  divine ; 
Be  what  thou  prayest  to  be  made  ; 
Let  the  great  Master's  steps  be  thine. 

Fill  up  each  hour  with  what  will  last ; 

Buy  up  the  moments  as  they  go ; 
The  life  above,  when  this  is  past. 

Is  the  ripe  fruit  of  life  below. 


SUPPLEMENT. 


ASSUMED  NAMES  OF  AUTHORS. 

[£.  after  a  name  denotes  English.  Namvs  not  indicated  are  American. 
The  dagger  (f)  denotes  dead.  The  assumed  names  are  arranged  in  alpha- 
betical order,  the  last  part  of  the  name,  when  possible,  being  placed  first.] 

Adeler,  Max — Charles  Weber  Clark. 

Alice,  Cousin — Alice  B.  (Neal)  Haven. 

Ameliaf — Mrs.  Amelia  B.  (Coppuck)  Welby. 

A.  L.  O.  E.  (A  Lady  of  England)— Miss  Charlotte  Tucker.  E. 

Benson,  Carlf — Charles  Astor  Bristed, 

Biglow,  Hosea — ^James  Russell  Lowell  (in  "Biglow  Papers"). 

Billings,  Josh — Henry  W.  Shaw. 

Breitmann,  Hans — Charles  G.  Leland. 

Buntline,  Ned— E.  Z.  C.  Judson. 

"Bon  Gaultier" — Thomas  Martin.  E. 

Bell — Actonf,  Anne  Bronte;  Currerf,  Charlotte  Bronte j  Ellisf, 

Emily  Bronte.  E. 

Brown,  Dunn — Rev.  Samuel  Fiske. 

Brown,  Tom — Thomas  Hughes.  E. 

Cornwall,  Barryf — Bryan  Waller  Proctor.  E. 

Carleton — Charles  Carleton  Coffin. 

Contributor,  A  Fat — A  Miner  Oris  wold. 

Crayon,  Porte— Gen.  D.  P.  Strother  (Artist). 

Dare,  Shirley — Mrs.  Susan  (Dunning)  Powers. 

Doesticks,  Q.  K.  Philanderf — Mortimer  N.  Thompson. 

Dow,  Jun. — Elbridge  G.  Page. 

Downing,  Major  Jackf — Saba  Smith. 

Eliaf — Charles  Lamb.  E. 

(ISO) 


ASSUMED  NAMES.  151 

Eliot,  George — Mrs.  Marian  C.  (Evans)  Lewes.  E. 

Fern,  Fannyf — (Miss  Willis,  Mrs.  Eldredge,)  Mrs.  James  Parton. 

Forrester,  Fannyj- — Mrs.  Emily  (Chubbuck)  Jiidson. 

Forrester,  Frankf — Henry  William  Herbert. 

Greenwood,  Grace — Mrs.  Sara  J.  Lippincott. 

Gath  (also  Laertes) — George  Alfred  Townsend. 

Glyndon,  Howard — Mrs.  Laura  C.  (Redden)  Searing. 

Howard,  Daisy — Myra  Daisy  McCrum. 

Hamilton,  Gail — Miss  Mary  Abigail  Dodge. 

Harland,  Marion — Mrs.  Mary  V.  (Hawes)  Terhune. 

Historicus — W.  C.  Vernon-Harcourt.  E. 

Ingoldsby,  Thomasf — Richard  Harris  Barham.  E. 

June,  Jennie — Mrs.  Jennie  C.  Croly. 

Kirke,  Edmund — ^J.  R.  Gilmore. 

Kerr,  Orpheus  C.  (office-seeker) — R.  H.  Newell. 

Lothrop,  "Amy — Miss  Anna  Warner. 

Marvel,  Ik — Donald  G.  Mitchell. 

McArone — George  Arnold. 

Myrtle,  Minnie — Anna  L.  Johnson  (late  Mrs.  Joaquin  Miller). 

Meredith,  Owen — Lord  E.  R.  Bulwer-Lytton  (son  of  the  great 

novelist).    E. 
Miihlbach,  Louisaf — Mrs.  Clara  Mundt.  (German.) 
News  Man,  Danbury — ^J.  M.  Bailey. 
North,  Christopher! — Prof.  John  Wilson.  (Scotch.) 
Nasby,  Petroleum  V. — David  Ross  Locke. 
Optic,  Oliver — Mr.  W.  T.  Adams. 
Ouida — Louise  de  la  Rame.  E. 
O'Reilly,  Milesf— Col.  C.  G.  Halpine. 
Parson,  Country— Rev.  A.  K.  H.  Boyd.  E. 
Prout,  Father — Rev.  Francis  Mahony.   (Irish.) 
Percy,  Florence — Mrs.  Elizabeth  Akers  Allen. 
Partington,  Mrs.— Mr.  B.  P.  Shillaber. 
Pepper,  K.  N. — J.  W.  Morris. 
Perley — Ben  Perley  Poore.  (Also  *'  Raconteur.") 
Parley,  Peterf — S.  G.  Goodrich. 
Perkins,  Eli — Melville  D.  Landon, 


152  COMMON-SCHOOL  LITERATURE, 

Paul,  John— Mr.  C.  H.  Webb. 

Shepherd,  The  Ettrickf — ^James  Hogg.  (Scotch.) 

Sand,  Georgef — Madame  Amantine  (Dupin)  Dudevant.  (French.) 

Titcomb,  Timothy— Dr.  J.  G.  Holland. 

Thomas,  Miss  Annie — Mrs.  Pender  Cudlip.  E. 

Twain,  Mark — Samuel  L.  Clemens. 

Ward,  Artemusf — Charles  F.  Browne. 

Wetherell,   Elizabeth — Miss   Susan   Warner     (author   of    Wide, 

Wide  World). 
Warrington — W.  S.  Robinson. 

Changed  Names  and  Initials. 
Miss  Mulock — Mrs.  Craik  [E.)\  Miss  Augusta  J.  Evans — 
Mrs.  Wilson ;  Miss  Harriet  Prescott — Mrs.  R.  G.  Spofford ;  Olive 
Logan  —  Mrs.  Wirt  Sikes;  Margaret  Fuller  f  —  Marchioness 
d'Ossoli ;  Fanny  Burneyf — Countess  D'Arblay  {^E.) ;  H.  H. 
— Mrs.  Helen  Hunt ;  Miss  Marian  C.  Evans — Mrs.  Lewes.  {E^ 

Authors  of  Anonymous  Works. 
"Schnnberg-Cotta    Family"    Series — Mrs.    Elizabeth    Rundle 
Charles  {E>j\  '*  Rutledge"— Mrs.  Miriam  (Cole)  Harris;  "Guy 
Livingstone" — J.  Lawrence;   "The  Lamplighter" — Miss  M.  S. 
Cummings. 


INDEX. 


[Names  of   Representative   Authors   are    printed    in    small    capitals 
others  in  lower-case  letters.] 


A. 

Adams,  John         .         .         .         .71 
Addison,  Joseph      ...        23 
Agassiz,  Louis  J.  R.  .         .         .  100 
Age — of  Chaucer,  10;    of  Caxton, 
11;    Elizabethan,  12  ;  of  Milton, 
17  ;  of  Restoration,  20  ;  of  Queen 
Anne.   21;     of  Johnson,   25;    of 
Scott,  32;  Victorian,  44;   Colo- 
nial,   63;     Revolutionary,     65; 
National,  72. 
Alcott,  Miss  Louise  M.      .        .      105 

Aldrich,  T.  B 87 

Alexander,  J.  Addison  .  103 
Alford,  Dean  .         .         .         .62 

Alison,  Sir  Archibald  .  .  60 
Allibone,  S.  Austin  .  .  .  104 
AUston,  Washington        .         .  71 

Ames,  Mary  Clemmer  . 
Arnold,  Thomas 
Arthur,  T.  S.         .         . 
Ascham,  Roger  .         .        .         17 

Assumed  Names  ....  150, 
Audubon,  John  J.  ...  70 
Austen,  Jane        .  ...     43 


Bacon,  Sir  Francis    . 
Baillie,  Joanna  . 
Bailey,  James  M. 
Bancroft,  George 
Barbauld,  Anna  Letitia 
Barnes,  Rev.  Albert 
Barrow,  Dr.  Isaac 
•  Baxter,  Richard 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher 
Bealtie,  James    . 
Beecher,  H.  W.  . 
Bentham   Jeremy 
"  Billings,  Josh"  (Shaw) 
Boker,  George  H.  . 
Bowles,  Wm.  Lisle 
Boyle    Robert    . 
Bradstreet,  Ann    . 
"  Breitmann,  Hans"  (Leland 


Brewster,  Sir  David  .  .  .  6i 
Bronte,  Charlotte  ...  61 
Brooks,  Mrs.  Maria  .  .  .67 
Brougham,  Lord  ...  44 
Browne,  Sir  Thomas  .  .  ■  ^9 
Browne,  Chas.  F.  (Artemus  Ward)  108 
Browning,  Mrs.  E.  B.  .  .  46 
Browning,  Robert  .  .  .48 
Brownson,  Orestes  A.  .  ,  107 
Bryant,  William  Cullen  .  73 
Buchanan,  Robert  ...  52 
Buckle,  Henry  Thomas  .         .  6i 

Bulwer-Lytton,  Sir  E.  G.  .  56 
Bulwer-Lytton,     E.     R.    "  Owen 

Meredith")         .         .         .         .51 
Bunyan,  John  ...        18 

Burke,  Edmund  .        .        .31 

Burney,  Fanny  (D'Arblayj  .  43 
Burns,  Robert  .  .  -  .27 
Butler,  Samuel  ....  21 
Byron,  Lord        .        .        .        .33 


Campbell,  Thomas 
Carlyle,  Thomas 
Cary,  Alice  and  Phoebe, 
Caxton,  William  . 
Challoner,  Bishop 
Chalmers,  Thomas 
Channing,  Wm.  EUery 
Chapin,  E.  H.       . 
Chapman,  George 
Chatterton,  Thomas 
Chaucer,  Geoffrey 
Chesebro,  Caroline 
Child,  xMrs.  L.  M.    .      >   . 
Clarendon.  Earl  (Hyde) 
Clemens,     Samuel     L.    (" 

Twain") 
Clemmer,  Mary  (Ames) 
Coleridge,  S.  T.     . 
Collins,  Wilkie       . 
Collins,  William 
Cooke.  John  Esten 
Cooper,  J.  Fenimore 


39 

.     58 

86,87 

12 

32 

•  44 
71 

.   107 

17 

.      29 

10  • 

.    105 
104 

•  19 


41 
61 

105 
96 


(153) 


154 


INDEX. 


Coverdale,  Miles  .         .        .  ,12 

Cowley,  Abraham  ...  19 

CowpEK,  William       .         .  .     2S 

Crabbe,  George  ...  38 

Craik,  Mrs.  Dinah  Mulock  .  .     61 

C'rashaw,  Richard  ...  19 

Curtis,  George  W.         .        ,  .  107 

Duna,  R.  H.,  Sen.  . 

Daniel,  Samuel     .... 

D'Arblay,  Countess  (Burney) 

Dakwin,  Charles 

Defoe,  Daniel 

De  QiriNCEY,  Thomas 

Derby,  Earl      .... 

Dickens,  Charles     . 

Dighy,  Kenelm  H.    . 

Disraeli,  Benj.,  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field    

Dobell,  Sydney 

Doddridge,  Dr.   Philip 

Dodge,  Mary  Abigail  (Gail  Ham- 
ilton) .... 

D'Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller 

Drake,  Jos.  Rodman 

Draper,  John  W.     . 

Drayton,   Michael 

Dryden,  John  .... 

Duyckinck  Brothers    . 

DwiGHT,  Timothy  . 


Edgeworth,  Maria 

Edwards,  Jonathan    . 

Eggleston,  Edward 

"Eliot,  George"  (Mrs.  Lewes) 

Eliot,  John  .        .         .         . 

Emerson,  R.  W.     . 

England,  Bishop 

Evans,  Augusta  (Mrs.  Wilson)     . 

Evelyn,  John         .         .         .         . 

Everett,  Alexander 

Everett,  Edw 

Extracts,  Miscellaneous 

F. 

Faber,  Frederick  \V.     . 

'•  Fern,  Fanny"  (Mrs.  Parton) 

"  Forrester,  Fanny"    (Mrs.  Jud 

son)  .... 

Fielding,  Henry    . 
Fletcher,  Beaumont  and   . 
Ford,  John    .... 
Forster,  John     . 
Francis,  Sir  Philip  (Junius) 
Franklin,  Brnj. 
Freneau,  Philip    . 
Froude,  Jas.  Anthony 


Fuller,  Margaret  (Ossoli)  .  106 
Fuller,  Thomas     .        .         .        .19 

G. 

Gait,  John  ....         43 

Gay,  John 24 

Gibbon,  Edward  .  ,  ,  31 
GifFord,  William  .  .  ,  .43 
Gladstone,  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  .  62 
Godwin,  William     ...  43 

Goldsmith,  Oliver  .  .  .25 
Gower,  John     .         .         .         .  11 

Gray,  Thomas  .  .  .  .26 
Greeley,  Horace  .  .  .  104 
"  Greenwood,  Grace"  (Mrs.  Lip- 

pincott)       ....  105 

Griffin,  Gerald  .  .  .  .61 
Griswold,  R.  W.  .  .  .  106 
Grote,  George       ....     60 

H. 

Hale,  Rev.  E.  E.  .  .  105 

Hallam,  Henry         ...  43 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene  .  .  67 
Hamilton,  Alexander  .  69 
Hamilton,  Sir  Wm.  .  .  .57 
"Hamilton,  Gail''  (Miss  Dodge)  106 
"Harland,  Marion"   (Mrs.  Ter- 

hune)  ....         105 

Harte,  F.  Bret  ...  90 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel     .  97 

Hazlitt,  William       ...  43 

Heber,  Bishop  .  .  .  .38 
Helps,  Arthur  ....  60 
Hemans,  Felicia  .  .  .  .38 
Herbert,  George  ...  16 
Herrick,  Robert  .  .  .  .19 
Hildreth,  Richard  .  .  .  104 
Hobbes,  Thomas  .  .  ,  .19 
Hodge,  Charles         .  .         .       107 

Holland,  J.  G.  ('*Titcomb")    .     89 

Holmes,  O.  W 80 

Holmes,  Mrs.  M.  J.  .  .  105 
Hood,  Thomas,  .  .  .  .38 
Hooker,  Richard     .         .         .  17 

Hopkinson,  Francis  .  .  .67 
Hopkinson,  Joseph  ...  67 
Howard,  Henry,  Earl  of  Surrey.  12 
Howells,  W.  D.  ...     107 

^       108 

61 
31 
44 
6a 


Hughes,  ArchbishoD 

Hughes,  Thomas   -¥»■. 

Hume,  David        .     s    . 

Hunt,  Leigh     . 

Huxley,  Thos.  H. 

Hyde,  Edward,  Earl  of  Clarendon,  19 


Ingelow,  Jean 
.  Irving,  Washington  . 


48 
93 


lADEX. 


155 


James,  G.  P.  R.         .         .        .        6i 

Jameson,  Mrs.  Anna  .  ,  .62 
Jefferson,  Thos.  ...  69 
Jeffrey,  Lord  .  .  •  .44 
Johnson  Samuel  ...  29 
Jonson,  Ben.  .         ,         .         .16 

Judson,    Mrs.     Emily    ("  Fanny 

Forrester")  ....         104 
Junius  (Sir  Philip  Francis)  .     32 


K. 

Keats,  John 
Keble,  John      . 

.     36 

.         38 

Kent,  Chancellor 

.     71 

Key,  Francis  Scott  . 

.          67 

Kingsley,  Charles 

•     61 

Knowles,  Jas.  Sheridan  , 

39 

Krauth,  Charles  P.     . 

.     108 

L. 
Lamb,  Charles  (Elia)        .        .     42 
Landon,  Letitia  E.  .         .         .  38 
Landon.  Melville  D.  ("  Eli    Per- 
kins")          108 

Landor,  Walter  Savage  .         .  44 
Language,  English        ...       9 
Langland,   Wm.   (*'  Piers    Plow- 
man")     II 

Leland  Cljas.  G.  (**Breitmann")  108 
Lever,  Charles  ...  61 

Lewes,   Mrs,  G.   H.    ("George 

Eliot") 57 

Lingard,  John  ...  43 

Lippincott,  Mrs.  Sara  J.  ("Grace 

Greenwood")  ....  105 
Literature,  English,  9  ;  American  63 
Locke,  John  .         .         .         .21 

Locke,  D.  R.  ("Nasby")  .  108 
Lockhart,  J.  G.  .  .  .  .44 
Longfellow,  H.  W.      .         .  74 

Lossing,  B.  }.  .  .  .  .  104 
Lover,  Samuel  ...  61 

Lowell,  J.  R 78 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles    ...  61 

Lytton,  Lo  rd  E.  G.    .  .     56 

Lytton,  ("Owen  Meredith")  ,  52 

M. 

Macaulay,  T.  B.        .        .  .52 

Macdonald,  Geo.      ...  61 

Mackay,  Charles           .         .  .51 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James    .         .  43 

McClintock,  John          .         .  .107 

McCosh,  James         .         .         .  106 

Mcllvaine,  Bp.  C.  P.    .         .  .  107 

Madison,  James         ...  71 

Mandeville,  John          .         .  .11 

Mann,  Horace  ....  106 

Marlowe,  Christopher  .         ,  .     16 


Marryatt,  Capt, 

43 

Marsh,  Geo,  P 

106 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice     . 

7t 

Massey,  Gerald     .         .         .         . 

51 

Massinger,  Philip      . 

16 

Mather,  Cotton 

64 

Mather,  Increase 

65 

"  Meredith,  Owen"  (Lytton) 

51 

Merivalc,  Charles 

60 

xM ill,  John  Stuart 

61 

Miller,  Hugh     .... 

61 

Miller,  Joaquin  (C.  H.)   . 
Milman,  H.  H.          .         ,         • 

91 
60 

Milton.  John     .         .        .        . 

17 

Mitchell,  D.  G. 

107 

Mitford,  Mary  R.         .         .         . 

43 

Montgomery,  James 

39 

Moore,  Clement  C.       .         .         . 

67 

Moore,  Thomas 

35 

More,  Hannah       .         .                  . 

31 

More,  Sir  Thomas   .         .         . 

12 

Morris,  William 

SO 

Morris,  George  P.    .         . 

93 

Motley,  J.  L 

96 

Moulton,  Mrs.  L.  C. 

105 

Muller,  Max         .         .         .        . 

62 

Muiock,  Dinah  M.  (Mrs.  Craik) 

61 

Names,  Assumed  .  .  .150 
"  Nasby,  Petroleum  V,"  (Locke)  108 
Newell,  R.  H.  (Orpheus  C.  Kerr)  108 
Newman,  Dr,  J.  H.  .         .         62 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac  .  .  .21 
North,    Christopher,     (Prof, 

Wilson)  ....  42 

Norton,  Hon.  Mrs.  C.  E.  S.        .*    51 

O. 

OssoH,    Marchioness    (Margaret 
Fuller) 106 


Paine,  Robt.  Treat  . 
Paley,  William 
Parker,   Theodore, 
Parkman,   Francis 
"  Partington,  Mrs."  (Shillaber) 
Parton,  James       ... 
Parton,  Mrs.  ("Fanny  Fern") 
Patmore,  Coventry,     . 
Payne,  John  Howard 
Pepys,  Samuel      ... 
Percy,  Bishop    .... 

Percival,  J.  (j 

Pierpont,  John 

"  Piers  Plowman"  (Langland)     , 

PoK,  Edgar  Allan 

PoUok,  Robert      .         .         .         . 

Pope,  Alexander 


67 
32 
102 
104 
108 


51 
93 
21 

32 
93 
93 


156 


INDEX. 


Prescott,  W.  H.        .        .        .94 
Prior,  Matthew  ...         24 

Procter,  B.  VV.  (Barry  gornwall)    38 
Procter,  Adelaide  .         .         .51 


R. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter 
Ramsay,  David     . 
Read,  T.  B.      . 
Reade,  Charles      . 
Reed,  Henry 
Reid,  Thomas 
Richardson,  Samuel 
Robertson,  William 
Rogers,  Samuel 
RusKiN,  John 

S. 
Sackville,  Thomas     . 
Sadlier,  Mrs.  M.  A. 
Sala,  G.  A.         .        ^ 
Saxe,  J.  G. 
Schaflf,  Dr.  Philip     . 
Scott,  Sir  Walter 
Sedgwick,  Mrs.  C.  M. 
Shakspeare,  Wm. 
Shaw,  H    W.  ("Josh  Billings' 
SR^a,  J.,  Gilmary 
Shelley,  P.  B.    . 
Sheridan,  R.  B. 
Shirley,  James 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip 
Sigourney,  Mrs.  L.  H. 
Simms,  Wm.  Gilmore 
Skelton,  John 
Smith,  Sydney 
Smollett,  Tobias  G. 
Somerville,  Mary 
SouTHEY,  Robert 
Southwell  Robert 
Spalding,  Archbishop 
Sparks,  Jared     . 
Spencer,  Herbert 
Spenser,  Edmund 
Sprague,  Charles 
Spurgeon,  Rev.  C, 
Stanley,  Dean 
Stedman,  C.  E. 
Steele,  Sir  Richard 
Sterne,  Lawrence 
Stewart,  Dugald    . 
Stoddard,  R.  H. 
Storrs,  Dr.  R.  S. 
Story,  Judge  Joseph 
Stowe,  Mrs.  H.  B.     . 
Street,  Alfred  B.       . 
Strickland,  Agnes 
Suckling,  Sir  John     . 
Sumner,  Charles  . 
Surrey,  Earl  of  (Howard) 


,  H 


16 
105 
61 
82 
108 

39 
104 

14 

108 

104 

,     34 

32 
,     14 

17 

,  107 

104 

,     12 

43 
.     31 

61 

40 

16 

.  108 

104 

.     61 

13 
.     93 

62 
.     62 

89 
.     24 

3^ 
.     43 

93 
.  107 

71 
.     98 

93 
.     60 

.  106 


Swift,  Jonathan 
Swinburne,  A,  C. 


34 

50 


Taylor,  Bayard         .        .        .    84 
Taylor,  Jeremy  .         .         ,19 

Temple,  Sir  Wm.  .         .         .21 

Tennyson,  Alfred  .        .         45 

Terhune,    Mrs.   (''Marion    Har- 

land") 105 

Thackeray,  W.  M.         .        .        55 

Thirlwall,  Connop        ,         ,         ,60 

Thomson,  James       ...         24 

Ticknor,  George  ....  104 

"  TiTcoMB,  Timothy"  (Holland)   89 

Trench,  R.  C    .        .        ,         .        62 

Trollope,  Anthony 

Trowbridge,  J    F.      . 

"  Twain,  Mark"  (Clemens) 

Tyndale,  William 

Tyndall,  John    .... 

Waller,  Edmund  .        .        , 

Walpole,  Horace 

Walton,  Izaak 

"Ward,  Artemus"  (Browne)    . 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley 

Warren,  Samuel 

Wayland,  Francis 

Webb,  C.  H.  ("John  Paul")  . 

Webster,  Daniel 

Webster,  John  .... 

Wesley,  John  and  Charles  . 

Whately,  Richard     . 

Whewell,  William 

Whipple,  E.  P.      . 

White,  Richard  Grant  . 

Whitman,  Walt 

Whitney,  W.  D 

Whitney,  Mrs.  A.  D.  T. 
Whittier,  J.  G. 

Willis,  N.  P 

Wilson,  Prof.  John  . 
Wilson,  Alexander  . 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Augusta  Evans 
Wirt,  William  ... 

Wiseman,  Cardinal     . 
Wither,  George 
Witherspoon,  John 
Wood,  Mrs.  Henry 
Woodworth,  Samuel 
Woolman,  John 
Wordsworth,  William    . 
Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas 
WyckhfFe,  John   . 


60 
105 


19 
32 
19 
108 
108 
61 
106 
108 
99 
17 
32 
62 
62 
101 

lOI 

93 
106 
105 
76 
93 
42 
71 
105 

71 

.  62 
19 
71 
61 
67 
65 
37 


Yates,  Edmund  . 
Yonge,  ^liss  C.  M. 
Young,  Edward    . 


61 
61 
24 


YA  02070 


fA^bS'OlQ' 


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